


heroes

by works of yesterday (DreamyRequiem)



Series: true speed [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, au where sonic finds shadow before he loses all his gd memories, headcanons treated as fact, i just pick the stuff i like out of the story and go from there, kinda self indulgent don't care, rewrite of an old thing i wrote on ffn w/ the same name, sonic heroes adaption sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-04-17 03:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14179335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamyRequiem/pseuds/works%20of%20yesterday
Summary: If there is one thing that is always true about Sonic the Hedgehog, its that he doesn't give up. At least, not without some trial and tribulation before hand. So when a maybe-friend is lost, he decides that you know what? He's not going to let them stay lost.Hang in there, Shadow.





	1. shadow hunt

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta`d
> 
> hi bye

"Just one more outing, Tails. I swear I'll drop it--"

Sonic was trying very hard to not to sound whiny. He hadn't been successful is last attempts but he needed to do this. If he could just find the...remains...then he could drop it. If there one thing he hated, it wasn't having closure. Well, that and not having freedom, but he felt the latter was obvious enough that he didn't feel like sharing.

Of course, judging by Tails' face he had once more failed in his attempt to not sound whiny. Well--next time. If there was one in any case. Sonic forced himself to focus as Tails opened his mouth to speak.

"Sonic, I know you want to find...Shadow." Tails' pause would've made Sonic bristle if it was anyone else. "But you haven't slept properly in a week. Even if you did find him how are you going to help him when you're liable to collapse at any time?"

(Neither of them breached the subject of Shadow being dead. It was...somewhat daunting, for all that they knew people had died in their adventures in the past. They had never known those people personally after all. It was easier to come to terms with them, than it was with Shadow.)

Sonic's teeth clacked together as he grimaced inwardly. Tails was right about him being useless if he didn't get some rest: Yet Sonic couldn't do it.  He felt that now, more than ever, if he stopped to rest the chance to find Shadow would slip through his fingers. His instincts were usually right--but he doubted Tails would let him go unless he agreed to some compromise.

He sighed deeply. Tails was one of the only people he'd relent to on this sort of thing.

"...Tails, let me go out one more time. If I can't find any sign of him, I'll rest then, okay?" He offered his hand to the young fox.

Tails hesitated before sighing deeply.  "...Fine. Look, Sonic I'm still not sure you'll find anything. He fell through the entire atmosphere at worst and at least through the stratosphere at best. Super forms are strong, but against the entire atmosphere, they can't hold up." The small fox touched Sonic's elbow, his expression earnest. "But if you want to find him, then I'll do what I can to help."

Sonic shrugged. "I dunno, I think he might've used that emerald he snagged to chaos control--and if he did, he would've still had his super form long enough to take the damage, I think?"

He started as Tails went still. The two tailed fox looked irritated, out of nowhere. "Sonic," He said slowly, "What do you mean the emerald he snagged?"

Uh oh. Had he said something wrong? "Shadow had an emerald? That I think he used? I mean, there was only six emeralds with me when I returned to the ARK, so I assumed Shadow had it?" Was that too much of an assumption to make? Sonic didn't think so but maybe Tails did?

"Sonic, you're my older brother and I love you but sometimes you're an idiot." Tails spun around and started digging through his boxes of stuff. Sonic tilted his head and wondered what the heck Tails was even doing. Eventually, Tails pulled free from his boxes with something clutched in his hands. "Why didn't you tell me he had an emerald earlier? I have an emerald tracker, Sonic."

Emerald Tracker? Oh right, Sonic forgot Tails had one of those. Wait...Oh, duh. Now he understood why Tails called him an idiot, he was one! "Wait, wait, you think I can find him with this?"

Tails shrugged. "It's our best bet--and it's better than just wandering around in vain trying find Shadow. Take it, go find him, so I can scold you both."

Sonic blinked at that: Scold them both? Then he remembered that Tails had never actually met Shadow in person. Everything Tails knew about Shadow had been from Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy, with a little bit from Rouge. But he laughed. "Alright! I'll be back faster than you can think, Tails!"

As he rushed out the door, tracker firmly in hand, he heard Tails call after him: "I dunno, Sonic! I can think pretty fast!"

He laughed again, the laughter lost to the wind.

* * *

The mountain range was thick with broken down Eggman bots. All sorts of different models, though Sonic only remembered the badnik shells by name. Tails would remember more but it was strange: Sonic should remember this place. Tails always liked to salvage pieces of eggman bots. How could there be so many in one place without them knowing?

Another thing of note was that the emerald tracker was definitely tracking something. Something that might not be an emerald after all: Judging by all the chaos shards all over the mountains spoke of high chaos energies in the area. Or, perhaps, a crash from a Super Powered hedgehog.

Sonic hoped it was the latter.

Either way, Sonic found himself jumping from rock to rock, peering into the looming shadows. It was starting to get late and if he didn't find something soon he'd have to call it quits: Permanently.

He didn't plan to let that happen--so he continued his speedy jump trek until a flood of lights burst out from behind a Cliffside. Startled, Sonic ducked behind some rocky outcroppings, the bits of chaos shards clinking and crunching beneath his shoes.

The robot that approached hadn’t noticed him--and Sonic wanted to keep it that way.

Between trying to keep quiet on the shifting rocks and shards and turning the tracker off, Sonic was lucky he hadn’t been caught. He’d have to count on that luck later, to find Eggman’s base nearby, if there was one. At least following the robot wasn’t too hard a task: The thing was loud and bumbling, hiding most of the noise Sonic made with its’ own noise.

He froze when he saw the robot's destination: It was a crater, with bits of crystalized chaos scatter across it. Just from looking at the crystals, it was obvious that they had been bigger before and that the chaos energy was slowly returning to the air. Sonic sucked in a breath.

This had to be where Shadow had fallen. And if some eggbots were wandering around, that meant there was likely a base nearby. His patience renewed, Sonic knelt behind a rock and watched his target. He'd follow it back to the base it came from and retrieve whatever Eggman had taken from the crater. Like heck Sonic was leaving anything of Shadow's in Eggman's hands!

Eventually, after the bot finished scouting the crater, it backtracked the way Sonic had seen it come. The hedgehog knelt and watch it go, considering where he could dive into hiding if it did look around. Which he doubted but, eh, gotta be careful right?

Tails would probably lose his mind laughing if he heard Sonic think that phrase.

He followed and the bot lead him to the very thing he had thought it would: An Eggman base. It's not as big and showy as the other: The outside was gray and rocky like the terrain. Sonic wondered when this place was made: the bits of metal he could see of the building itself looked shiny and new. Had Eggman built this place to look for Shadow?

Or, as it were more likely, the Chaos Emerald Shadow had taken with him when he hell?

Sonic pursed his lips at the thought. Of course Eggman would go after the chaos emerald first, Shadow second. If he could get both, though, then for Eggman it might just be a win-win situation. After all, Sonic thought darkly, Eggman had plenty of experience bending others' minds to his will. Sonic needed to find Shadow soon, before Eggman did something to him.

But Sonic stopped to think for a second: If Shadow had landed here, wouldn't GUN or the local governments have noticed? Unless they had noticed and just...left Shadow to die. Which was morbid and cynical and Sonic hated thinking about others in such a way, but GUN had made it very clear they did not care about Shadow beyond him being a threat. Anyone could be a threat, with the right motivation.

He shook his head. Whatever had happened, he had to focus on the now. Like how to sneak into Eggy's base, without the supposed doctor finding Sonic or detecting him somehow.

Sonic frowned to himself as he searched for a way into the base that wasn't the front door: If that was what had happened, then that'd also explain the little shards of crystalized chaos energy all over. And also why they didn't find him before, or Eggman's new base. They'd been looking for meteor sightings of 'falling debris' not a teleporting hedgehog.

They probably should've realized he could've unconsciously teleported sooner. Chaos knew that Tails wouldn't have been driven up a wall if Sonic had remembered about the Chaos Emerald sooner. That and...ugh, there were so many things that he basically screwed him and should've remembered sooner.

He puffed out and found a vent. It was hidden among the rocks and after some tugging, Sonic got the cover off. The inside of the vents had some lasers--either security or battle lasers--and either way it was bad for Sonic. He wouldn't want to trigger the security or get sliced up so...Well, if it was the former a rock would just trigger it. Maybe he should...ah, that's a plan.

Pulling out a tiny marble from his glove and tosses it into the vent. It sparked and then went the lasers, dying as the sparks from the marble hit it. Sonic smiled and began to slide down the vent, once more going slow against his own will. He really can't wait until the action got started and he can move fast again.

...Sonic really hoped Shadow was here. If he wasn't then--Well, he'd keep his promise to Tails. He won't keep chasing after Shadow.

But if he was here, he'd need a place to stay far away from Eggman. Tails and his place was probably the best bet for that, if Shadow was willing to stay there for any longer than a couple hours. The other hedgehog was easily as impatient as Sonic. He was just better at hiding it.

His feet hit the bottom of the vent and he knelt, crawling through the vent until he found a vent opening. He tugged at the opening until it snapped open and he slipped it to the side as he jumped out. Ugh, finally! When he was leaving he was going to break out as usual without any more sneaking.

Of course, he had to sneak around to check out everything else first. Rooms, rooms, rooms, he'd have to check each room individually unless he found the security room. Sonic made a face but decided to do something he usually didn't: Fast but silent running. Not because it was hard but because he had stop himself from hitting the sound barrier and going beyond.

Making a face, he dashed back and forth down the hallway, all of the rooms he spied into were empty. Sonic rolled his eyes as he continued to zip down the hall. It's so empty here, which he thought was strange. Eggman usually had robots at every door--did he have them all out in the mountain range, collecting chaos shards?

Nothing good could come from that. He should probably do something about it.

Sonic grinned: Maybe he should pull another base explosion. It's not like that was an uncommon thing for him.

He paused as he stopped by the final room. Eggman's voice echoed from inside and Sonic hissed as he pressed himself against the door. "--despise hedgehogs." Eggman grumbled as he bustled around inside the room. "Honestly this damn machine couldn't have brought anything else? I suppose I can still use this hedgehog to properly rebuild my android plans..."

Android plans? Sonic made a face: The last time Eggman had created an android it'd been Metal Sonic. Would he really try that again? Man, the egghead was starting to lose his touch if he was reusing old plans.

Of course, there were some implications there that Sonic didn't like. A machine that had spat out a hedgehog? From the sounds it, it wasn't Shadow, but someone else. Sonic puffed before looking up at the hallway ceiling. There was a vent cover and Sonic pushed off the ground and slammed into it. Sure it'd make a lot of noise, but he doubted Eggman would realize he was here.

After all, the doctor was as used to his chaotic running ad Sonic himself was--he wasn't as used to the hedgehog sneaking around his bases, even if he had done it loads of times. As soon as Sonic pushed the vent cover back into place, though, Eggman bumbled out of his lab, hissing insults and yelling for the patrolling bots to form up.

When they showed up beneath the vent, Sonic peered down into the hall. "You lot!! I heard something--a _loud_ something! Make sure he is still in his capsule or I swear..." Eggman seemed to be ready to pop from his rage, glowering at each of the robots in turn. "Well?! Get going and see if he's still there!"

The bot left and Sonic thought. The 'he' Eggbutt was talking about...he doubted he meant Sonic himself. Realistically, it could be anyone but Sonic sure as heck hoped it was Shadow. Yet...Sonic peered down towards the room Eggman was now leaving behind. There was a third person trapped in here. He can't just leave them.

He sighed. He sure hoped that the person in that room can sneak.

Sonic carefully slipped out of the vents once he was sure the hall was clear and into the room. Sure, this was likely the main hall, but with how Eggman designed bases there was probably a maze of halls the bots had gotten themselves lost in already. That gave him time--and he stopped to eyeball the room he was in.

The far wall held an odd contraption. At its top, an emerald shone, its power radiating the room with chaos energy. Sonic frowned: That had to be the emerald Shadow had! Which meant that Eggman had at least found that--but where was Shadow?

...As much as Sonic wanted to go looking for Shadow, he knew the other hedgehog could take care of himself. The trapped silver-gray mobian on the other hand? They looked like they could use some help, help Sonic could provide here and now. Rolling his shoulders, Sonic leapt up and ripped the emerald from the door.

Thankfully no alarm went off and Sonic turned to the mobian. They were a hedgehog, if the quills were anything to go by, and seemed rather terrified. To the point of shaking in their boots, literally.

Normal, for someone not used to Eggman's crazy shenanigans. Then again, if they got pulled through that weird thing on the wall, then their fear and confusion may have just been pushed way beyond the norms. Then again Sonic might’ve been a little freaked out if someone pulled him through a portal to someplace he didn’t know. Sonic puffed before he tried the straight forward option of opening the door to get the hedgehog out. No luck, though.

"Why am I not surprised the egghead didn't leave the front door open?" He joked, grinning through the glass as the silver hedgehog. The hedgehog just grimaced back at him. Wow, no sense of humor huh?

He tried experimentally pushing at some of the buttons on the door's side panel but nothing happened. All it did was beep at him, as he hit the buttons. What did he need a code?

...Eh, screw that.

Stepping back towards the far wall, Sonic said, "You might wanna cover your ears and get back!" He didn't wait to hear the hedgehog's response, instead spin dashing the door of the glass cage. For a moment he thought it wouldn't give to his spines--and then the glass shattered.

Careful, Sonic stopped spinning and shook glass shards out of his spines. He turned with a grin to the silver hedgehog just as an alarm went off. The hedgehog yelped, looking horrified. "Whoops," Sonic said, "Guess I set that off, huh? Hey! We're going to be moving pretty fast n a moment here, so sorry if you get like vertigo or something."

"What--" The hedgehog was cut off as Sonic grabbed their (his?) hand and zipped out of the room. Sonic took care to be slower than he was even with Tails--Tails knew tricks to keep up as best as he could, but this hedgehog didn't seem to know anything about him.

Which was weird in its own way but--whatever! He'd worry about that later. For now, he needed to get this kid out while also looking for Shadow. So into the maze of hallways they go!

A couple minutes into their search, Eggman's voice bombed out from the intercoms. "An intruder has broken the silver hedgehog out! Keep an eye out and catch them--and use deadly force if necessary!" Sonic snorted: Eggbots' deadly force was usually just a shower of lasers, which didn't do much when facing Sonic's speed.

It's too bad they didn't just assume the hedgehog had broken out on his own. That was probably his own fault, considering the broken glass was inside the cage and not outside. Ah well, that'll be dealt with as soon as they got out.

He slowed to a stop at a turn and looked back at the silver hedgehog. He looked dizzy and confused, as if he couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Sonic hesitated. “Hey, wanna help me out with something?” He asked.

The other hedgehog blinked and muttered softly. “I--guess I could? What am I supposed to help with?” He looked even more confused than Tails had, when they first started working together. Definitely not used to this sort of chaos. Or he was just feeling sick.

“Help me with a break out,” Sonic said casually, sticking his hand into his quills.

Sonic pulled out the emerald tracker and wondered: Shadow had a lot of chaos energy, didn’t he? Maybe Sonic could use the tracker to find Shadow’s location. Hopeful, Sonic flipped it on and was treated to several loud beeps: Four points lit up on the ‘map’ of the tracker’s tiny screen. One was him, of course, with the emerald he had taken earlier. 

One had to be Shadow, right? Though that did make him wonder--what were the other two? Maybe some chaos shards or two other emeralds? Shaking his head, Sonic looked up with a grin. "Alright, let's get going again!"

The hedgehog spluttered. "Wait--"

Sonic ran with the silver hedgehog almost like a rag doll behind him as he made his way to the closest of the two. He skidded to a stop by the corner that turned into the hallway to the first of the rooms. Eggbots stood outside it, their laser guns raised in case anything showed up.

"Okay." Sonic turned and patted the silver hedgehog on the shoulder. "I'll be right back--you stay out of sight, okay?" Before the hedgehog could reply--again--Sonic was off, bouncing back and forth off the walls. The eggbots started shooting wildly before he spin dashed through them like they were wet paper.

Landing on his feet, Sonic punched the door's button open. It slid open and the blue hedgehog stepped into the dim room. The only thing that seemed to be lit up at all was the green liquid inside a capsule at the center of the room--which held a certain black and red hedgehog. Sonic couldn't help the ear to ear grin he had as he stared at the capsule.

Nice! Sonic was suddenly super glad he hadn't given up looking just yet--otherwise he'd have never found this base and Shadow. Of course, now he had to figure out how to open that capsule.

Poking around the capsule, he eventually found a buttoned panel. Like before, he poked at it until, as if luck was with him, he managed to figure out the right combination. Which was lucky: There was no way he'd be able to spin dash that capsule like he had that glass cage.

The green liquid drained out of the capsule and opened up, the glass top pulling back as the golden seam in the front split in two. Shadow collapsed like a puppet without strings and Sonic caught him. The other speedster seemed alright, but--no, wait. A nasty looking burn was healing along his left shoulder and arm. The liquid that was still on Shadow seemed to seep into the burn and heal it somewhat.

Had Eggman been healing Shadow? If so, why? The human didn't like hedgehogs and after everything that had happened with Shadow, why would he save him? The only thing he could think of was that it was one mercy, simply because his grandfather had made Shadow.

Which was still kinda weird to think, but...Well. There was always the chance that Eggman was planning to do brainwash Shadow, somehow. Sonic didn’t want to risk it, so it was time to go.

Ducking out of the room, the blue hedgehog jogged back around the corner to see the nervous mobian he'd left behind. Sonic grinned at him and said, "Found someone I was looking for! You ready to go to the other side of this base?"

The hedgehog made a face. "Are you going to drag me along again?" He asked, sounding tired. Whoops, had Sonic not noticed that? He'll apologize later--when they weren't in the clutches of the Egghead.

"Naw! Shadow needs to be carried--And I figured I'd do that! I can fight and carry him, after all." Sonic shifted Shadow in his arms so he could hold out his hand to the other hedgehog. “`Course, I could always run us out? Which would mean I’d have to ‘drag you along’ again.”

He hesitated before taking Sonic's hand. "...Fine," He said grumpily, "But--! But after this you've got tell me where I am??"

Aw, poor guy. Eggman must've just kidnapped him off the street, with that door thing. Maybe he'll blow this base sky high later just for that... First, though, he needed to get him and Shadow out of here. Especially because Sonic was pretty sure only he can actually fight.

"Of course! Heck, I'll help you find your way home too--now let's go!"

Sonic hoped to get out of the base without having to chaos control. He could barely do it on his own and probably wouldn't have been able to manage to teleport the ARK without Shadow's experience in directing the chaos control. With three people, Sonic was worried he might just accidentally over shoot and drop them into the sea. And with one unconscious hedgehog and an aqua phobic one? Bad idea.

His race through the base ended with the three of them on the other side from Shadow's capsule prison--where a storage of chaos shards were being held. The same ones, Sonic mused, that eggbutt must've been having harvested by his bots. Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious this was some sort of trap. Eggman had been leading them around on purpose, and it was only the two other mobians that had stopped Sonic from plunging through.

He reached up and touched the quills were the emerald was: He might just have to chaos control after all. If only Shadow would wake up! But it didn't seem likely to happen any time soon. Especially as, to Sonic's annoyance, Eggman decided to destroy half his base with a giant mech.

Chaos shards rained down around the three hedgehogs, the nameless hedgehog squawking all the way. Sonic puffed as one of Eggman's many 'Egg Dragoons' soared into sight, clearly ready to fight them. "What, using one of those models again? Can't you think of anything new?" Sonic called out with a snarky grin. Keep up the snark--and put Shadow some place safe maybe?

Or, grumbled a Knuckles-like voice in his ear, you can just skip the fight this time to get injured and innocent people out of the line of fire!

Curse you, Knuckles voice, stop making sense. Sonic puffed and pulled the silver mobian close. "Hold onto me." He told the silver hedgehog as Eggman ranted about something above their heads. "I'm going to do something that miiight get us hurt but also less hurt than if we stay here. Okay?"

"Uh, okay? But--" Sonic didn't let the other hedgehog continue, as he grabbed the emerald from his quills and threw that same arm around the hedgehog's shoulders.

He pulled on the energy as Eggman screeched something about the emerald, thought desperately of Mystic Ruins, and said, "Chaos Control!"

For a moment, Sonic forgot he existed. Forgot all that was as reality bended and warped, like it had never actually been. Neither the rescued hedgehog nor Shadow existed either, just like Sonic was just a figment of a broken reality. Colors washed over them and turned all of their furs different shades over and over again until--

\--Reality once more slammed back into them and the emerald leapt from Sonic's hand. He dropped Shadow and crumbled down next to the unconscious hedgehog. The other hedgehog passed out and Sonic barely escaped following their example by focusing on the sand grinding into his knees.

Wait, sand? He looked around and felt a stone sink to the bottom of his stomach. These beaches...He didn't recognize them at all.

"This isn't Mystic Ruins." Sonic muttered. "Where the heck did the chaos emerald take us?"


	2. seashell hills

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d

"Well, this sucks." Sonic flopped back into the sand.

They'd been stuck there for two days now. Thanks to the vanishing emerald, which had somehow disappeared after they chaos controlled, Sonic couldn't contact Tails. He had also tried to use the tracker to contact Tails as most of Tails' inventions had more than one purpose. Unfortunately, even if it did have a communicator, Sonic was out of reach.

Shadow had spent most of those two days deeply asleep. He had actually woken up, briefly, but had only flailed and cried out something about 'Maria'--which wasn't the first time Sonic had heard Shadow mention that name. During fight with Finalhazard, he'd heard Shadow mutter something about Maria and promises.

He wondered if Maria was to Shadow as Tails was to Sonic. If she was, well, she probably wasn't...around anymore.

On the other hand, Sonic had spent the time getting to know Silver. Silver was, of course, the hedgehog who had been dragged into Eggman's base against his will and was now stuck on some island chain. Silver was apparently from some town called Northe Town, which was constantly under threat of some guy name Kintobor. Sonic had frowned about that because he hadn't heard of that at all.

During one of these discussions, Silver had shrugged and said, "Well, I have no idea how that can be. I know some of Kintobor's plots have done a lot of damage to other places besides Northe Town. Like, globally too, not just in the country."

"Heh, next thing I know you're going to say you have no idea who Eggman is." Sonic joked, sitting on a drift log. At Silver's blank look, Sonic's joking grin faded away to a more serious smile. "You do know who Eggman is, right? The guy who kidnapped you?"

Silver furrowed his brow. "That was Eggman? No...I've never heard of him, before you."

Their conversations tended to end that way a lot, with them both baffled and confused, wondering what the heck the other was talking about. Silver seemed to think it was crazy Sonic didn't know Kintobor and Sonic thought the same of him, except in regards to Eggman.

Of course, this time was also spent with Silver trying out some new powers. He was, apparently, a telekinetic. When Sonic asked about Silver just shrugged and explained that he had absolutely no idea he could do any of this until now. Which made Sonic think: Did the chaos emerald have something to do with it?

Tails had been the first to tell Sonic about how he thought the chaos emeralds with slowly augmenting their abilities, each time they used them. That Sonic was definitely faster than he had been before he used the emeralds the first time. If that was the case, then maybe they had just awakened Silver's abilities?

But, as Sonic lay in the sand thinking about that and how the situation stuck, the third member of their stranded party woke up.

He only knew that because Shadow had leapt up to his feet in a fighting stance, his crimson eyes blazing as if he was under threat of something. Silver had squawked and rolled away, curling up into a ball on instinct. Sonic, on the other hand, jerked up and mirrored Shadow, save for the latter's fighting stance. Instead, Sonic raised his hands in a placating gesture.

"Hey, Shadow," Sonic said soothingly, "What's up?"

Okay, maybe that wasn't soothing. Whatever.

Shadow narrowed his eyes at Sonic, frowning heavily as the chaos energy crackling around his hands slowly dissipated. "...Sonic?" Shadow muttered, movements suddenly very slow. "What--Wait, where is this?"

Sonic winced lightly at the sharp tone. "Uh, the beach I guess? I don't really know--the Chaos Control I did didn't take us to Mystic Ruins like I hoped it would."

"Mystic...Ruins?" Shadow sounded baffled. "Why would we go there? The biolizard--"

Oh.

Oh! Did Shadow not remember them defeating the biolizard? Or teleporting the ARK back to where it was supposed to be? Maybe he didn't--but even if he didn't, he sure as heck remembered Sonic. Which was good enough for him, as far as he was concerned.

Sonic ruffled his quills with a wry grin. "We took care of that a couple weeks ago, Shadow. Some...stuff happened, and you fell down to Gaia. After we got the ARK back in place, of course! We've been looking for ya ever since."

The dark hedgehog stepped back, his brow furrowed with a deep frown. "We?"

"Ah--Me and Tails!" Sonic explained quickly. "Mostly me, `cause I can cover more ground on my own. But!! Tails gave me an emerald tracker, to see if we could track the emerald you had." Sonic paused. "It was pretty lucky that I chaos controlled back to the ARK when I did. With how far the emeralds were form each other, we both could've lost our super forms and, uh, died."

Silver made a soft confused noise in the background and Sonic started. Ah, poor Silver, he probably had absolutely no idea what was going on. He mouthed 'explain later' at the other hedgehog before turning back to Shadow. "Anyway, we beat the Finalhazard, you got lost, I searched, and uh. A Chaos Control kinda backed fire and we ended up here." Which sucked, because Sonic sure as heck didn't want to be here anymore.

There was a grunt of acknowledgement before Shadow crossed his arms, most of the tension rolling away. "Fine. Well, what are we doing to get out of here?" Shadow tilted his head with a frown.

Get off the island, huh? Sonic nodded with a grin. "I already found a way off--but I didn't want to leave you and Silver here."

"Me too?" Silver asked, sounding like he was right at Sonic's shoulder. He started, turning to look at Silver whom looked sheepish. "Sorry, Sonic. Um, so you stayed for both of us then?"

Sonic nodded with a grin. "Well, yeah! I mean, Shadow could use his own speed to get off this island too, but that would still leave you here."

Said escape method was a strange broken down bridge of sorts, where he could easily speed across and kick off over to the rest of the island chain. But that was Sonic--and Shadow. Silver on the other hand? He was far too slow in comparison to even Tails or Knuckles. He wouldn't have been able to cross on his own.

Twiddling his thumbs, Silver said, "I...might be able to use my telekinesis somehow, to get off but..." He trailed off, looking fretful. Sonic couldn't blame him--Silver didn't have a strong grasp on his abilities yet, but if he wanted to get off without Sonic carrying him, that was his only choice. Well, he supposed he could swim but who knew what was in these waters. Probably hedgehog-hungry sharks--or orcas.

The silence that followed was heavy, and not in a good way. Sonic had promised to help Silver out and find his way home--but how the heck was he going to do that when he couldn't even figure out where they were? If only he got a look at the other islands in the chain, maybe he'd figure something out...!

It was Shadow, in the end, who broke the silence. "So who are you exactly?" He asked, voice cool as he regarded Silver.

Silver flustered at being put on the spot. "Ah! I'm Silver--the Hedgehog! You're Shadow, right? Sonic mentioned your name when we were rescuing you from...Eggman's base." Silver still had the baffled look of someone who had just been told hedgehogs could fly with chaos emeralds whenever he said Eggman's name.

...Sonic decided it'd be hilarious to see Eggman's reaction to Silver's confusion.

"That's correct." Shadow nodded. "...Who is Eggman?"

That dragged Sonic's attention back fully. "Uh, you know, Eggman? The only human on the ARK when we were fighting the Finalhazard?" Maybe Shadow just didn't remember Eggbutt's nickname? He had referred to Eggman as 'Doctor' or 'Doctor Robotnik'--which were both technically true but. Sonic liked making fun of the stupid egg pun names Eggman did.

What even was Eggman's fascination with eggs, anyway? He hadn't been so obsessed with eggs back when he controlled Mobius...

When Shadow shook his head, his brow furrowed in heavy contemplation, Sonic felt the pit of worry sink back into its place in his gut. "...Shadow, what do you remember?"

The older(?) hedgehog hesitated, as if he didn't want to say before crossing his arms and looking away. "I remember you, and fighting the biolizard and the Finalhazard," He said, "As well as the pink hedgehog--Amy, yes?"

"Amy Rose." Sonic confirmed. He frowned, internally thinking that he was frowning way too much in recent days. "What about before that?" Did that weird green liquid do something or was it just from Shadow's crash? He hoped it was just the crash but if Eggman's green liquid did something...

Shadow was frowning heavily, more so than Sonic was. "...I remember when I woke up. And my life on the ARK. That is all."

Huh...Okay, Sonic figured Shadow had lived on the ARK, somehow. But he remembered that and everything with the biolizard...but he didn't remember anything from in between? "So you don't remember Eggman at all?

He scoffed. "No, I don't."

Well, that was weirdly specific, to forget about only Eggman. "Weird," Sonic said out loud. Shadow just shrugged at him.

“Oh right! I totally just remembered something.” Sonic stuck his hand in his quills as he remembered something. Shadow just watched with a frown, his arms crossed.  He pulled out the other’s ring bracelet thing and held it out. “You lost this, before.”

Shadow tilted his head at the item before taking it and looking at his left arm, where it had been missing. He snapped it back on his wrist and nodded to Sonic, not breathing a word of gratitude. That was fine: Sonic could see that Shadow was thankful just from the look on his face.

They both jumped as Silver landed next to them. "Sorry!" He apologized. "You two...looked busy so I tried to see if I could use my powers on myself."

"Looks like you can," Sonic said encouragingly, "Think you can make it across the strait without falling?"

Silver nodded. Sonic grinned: Finally, they could get the heck outta there. Excited, the blue hedgehog jogged over to the bridge and wait for Silver and Shadow to catch up. He was surprised to see Silver, somehow, keeping up until he noticed that Silver had a teal glow. His telekinesis?

Giving them a thumbs up, Sonic turned and then ran over the collapsed bridge, kicking off when he hit the edge of the ruin. His feet hit the other side of the ruined bridge with a heavy thump and he kept going until he skidded to a stop, with his shoes screeching across the sand, kicking up into a cloud. Sonic instinctively closed his eyes and mouth.

He heard Shadow's airskates behind him and the thump of Silver's boots hit the sand. "Woof." Silver muttered. "I think I've got a hand on this telekinesis thing now." Sonic shot him a grin over his shoulder and then peered into the distance.

The path ahead seemed to lead right through the island chain. Convenient, but Sonic wasn't going to complain about that. What he was going to complain about, though, was the eggbots that he could see standing like stark orange beacons across the sands.

"Why didn't I notice those earlier?" Sonic muttered to himself, staring at the distant foes.

Shadow stepped up next to him, peering at the distant foes. "And I'm assuming those have something to do with that Eggman?" He tilted his head at the distant bots. "Time to take care of it?"

Sonic laughed. "Well, we're going to have to, if we want to get through. Besides, I'm up for some bot smashing, if you are!" He grinned wide and hard at Shadow, who smirked back at him. Silver groaned in the back ground and Sonic shot him a sympathetic look. "Just leave the smashing to us, Silver, until you've got a better grasp on your powers, alright?"

"If you're sure." Silver muttered.

Punching a fist, Sonic said, "Alright, let's go!" He revved up in a way only he could before kicking off. Trusting the other two would be able to keep up, Sonic made his way towards the first set of the orange-bronze bots and began smashing. Behind him, he heard Shadow spin dashing whatever bots Sonic missed. He hoped Silver was keeping up with the two's speed.

He took a few jumps up towards the highest point of the nearest island, peering down towards the other islands. Huh...now that he looked, the place looked familiar. Just not in the way he recognized, right off the bat. Maybe he'd seen it from a distance? But there were only two places he could've seen these islands--Prison Island, which had been a solitary island between Station Square and Central City: No place for an island chain to be seen from.

On the other hand...the only other place were the Mobius Isles, were Westside Isle and such. He did know there was an island chain near the Mobius Isles that used to be inhabited, but... Ugh, he didn't want to be near Mobius. That was one of the few places he didn't want to return to or visit.

Well, at least on the bright side, they had a way to civilization and far more importantly radio and cell towers.

Cupping his hands around his mouth, Sonic called down to Silver and Shadow. "There's a way to the Mobius Isles that a way!" He pointed vaguely in the direction he had spotted. "Once we get into a town over there, we can contact Tails to come pick us up!"

"Okay!" Silver yelled back. "Shouldn't we get going then?"

Sonic responded with a thumbs up before jumping and, basically, skydiving down to where the other two hedgehogs waited. Once he landed, he turned and said, "You ready to try out some attacks on the next eggpawns we run into, Silver? I mean, now we know where we're going we might as well enjoy the run!"

A soft hum from the white hedgehog before he sighed and nodded. Grinning Sonic gave him another thumbs up before he led the trio of them down the path and stopped, frowning at the sight of a bobsled. It was bright red and clearly made for some of Eggman's robots. Wait, duh, they're round, so a spin dash run should work to move the bobsled.

"Why use the bobsled at all?" Shadow asked with a frown. "Isn't it _suspicious_ that this is just...here for us to use?"

Sonic shrugged. "In my experience, Eggman doesn't leave stuff liek this around for no reason. We might need it to get through or something." Like a giant wall, or a hill so steep, even Sonic's max speed might be dangerous to use. He definitely didn't want to accidentally go flying into the sea.

After some prodding, Silver also gave into the use of the bobsled. Shadow took the front, as he seemed to take hits the best out of the three of them, and Sonic the back, as he accelerated the fastest. Actually, was that why Shadow had the air skates? Maybe he just sucked at moving fast quickly enough.

Eh, whatever. He'd think about that later, when Tails was around.

It turned out, though, that Sonic's thoughts about possible obstacles was right. Several thick blocks were collapsed across the path way. They were broken such in a way they could've eventually climbed them, but it would've taken way more time than any of three hedgehogs seemed to want to take. Thankfully, the bobsled had that weird drill thing on the front and dug right through the collapsed ruins. Sonic was just a little glad that it didn't collapsed on top of them, after.

After they got out of the bobsled, they ran into a group of eggpawns. "You're up, Silver!" Sonic gave him a thumbs up before backing out of the way. Silver hid a groan and began picking up the eggpawns with his powers--or tried.

"They're too big," He said, "I can't pick them up..." He trailed as off as he stared at Sonic and Shadow, as if suddenly thinking of something.

Shadow narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Silver's grin was a little menacing. "Can you two curl up for me realy quick? I want to try something." Shadow and Sonic exchanged looks before the latter curled up. Shadow hesitated before following Sonic's example.

It was strange, when Sonic suddenly realized what Silver wanted to do. He couldn't pick up the eggpawns--so he picked up them and used them as weapons. Not a bad idea, considering Knuckles had used something similar to him and Tails once. Except, you know, Sonic didn't feel anxious Tails was going to hurt himself. Curse his brotherly instincts, because he knew that instinctive worry for Tails was going bit him in the butt one day.

Regardless, when he felt the strange stretch-pull feeling leave, Sonic uncurled and landed on his feet. Silver had apparently let him go when he was in midair--it would've been nice to have a warning but, eh.

"...It was a...good plan." Shadow muttered grudgingly as he landed next to Sonic. Silver's smile was blinding.

* * *

For a while, the run was just more of the same. There were a couple of loops that Sonic gleefully raced through but otherwise there was nothing new, not even the second bobsled really raised any eyebrows. Silver got used to calling out when he wanted to try his attacks and both Sonic and Shadow got used the weird push-stretch feeling that Silver's powers caused. At least there was no way they could ever mistake Silver's powers for anything else.

Eventually, after snagging a red star ring, they did find something new. It just seemed like something that neither Shadow nor Silver really wanted to accept as real. Well, Sonic thought, if he wasn't used to crazy weird stuff, he might've had the same reaction. But these were just some massive feral turtles with some stone platforms on their backs. Heck, Sonic was more concerned about how the platforms got on their backs than the fact that they even existed.

"Well," Shadow eventually said, voice soft, "I suppose this isn't the strangest thing I've seen." Sonic grinned at him: Gaia was full of wonders that Shadow had yet to see.

Sonic grinned, gave them a single thumbs up, and said, "Well, see you two on the other side!" He heard Shadow splutter a 'what'--ha, he's got to tease the dark hedgehog about that later--as Sonic was flung across the way by a speed ramp. He landed on both feet on the first of the platforms and began following his way through the path of rickety speed ramps to the other side. It was way better than swimming, anyway. How Tails enjoyed swimming, he'd never know.

He paused as Shadow caught up to him. "Silver?" He asked. Shadow pointed upwards and Sonic saw Silver passing through the orange and rainbow rings above their heads. Sonic laughed. "That's one way to do it!" He put on speed, hoping to not lose to Silver's aerial route.

Skidding to the opposite side of the ocean pass, Sonic waved to Silver and Shadow, who were just behind him. He was secretly glad he 'won' the race across the strait--but didn't say anything. Sonic knew better than to say anything about it, if only not to cause any silly strife. He'd learned his lesson with all the Knuckles teasing, thanks.

Sonic stretched. "Alright, alright," He said, "We're almost to the final stretch! You guys ready to...uh, beak through this giant stone door?"

Wryly, he knocked on the stone door. Shadow rolled his eyes, before gently pushing Sonic back from the door. "I'll handle it." Shadow drawled. Sonic blinked as Shadow slam dashed the door. It shattered as well as if Knuckles had punched it. Unsurprising, really, because Sonic was pretty sure Shadow was one of the few people who might be able to match Knuckles.

He wouldn't want to bet on it, though.

"Alright!" He fist pumped. "Let's go!" Racing through the halls, Sonic only slowed to a stop when he stepped out into fresh air as he saw...an obvious trap. Whatever it was it pretty obvious: The pressure plates were brightly colored, in comparison to the rest of the white marble landscape

Shadow slowed to a stop next to him as he also noticed the pressure plates. He eyeballed them and then Sonic. "Why haven't you jumped it?" He asked, voice sounding dry.

A light laugh from Sonic. "I thought I'd wait up for you two slowpokes!" Shadow rolled his eyes as Silver zipped up and passed them. Sonic and Shadow exchanged looks as Silver stopped right on top of one of the pressure plates.

"...What's wrong?" Silver asked as the plate activated beneath his boots. Sonic didn't respond, instead reaching forward to snag his hand and pull him forward. Shadow raced pass, only looking back at the trap once. Sonic didn't blame him: He only looked back once too and when you see a giant stone ball the size of three humans come rumbling down towards you, you don't want to look at it again.

Silver was shrieking as he stumbled and forced his powers to activate. Sonic grinned weakly at Silver before he heard something clink and chink above their heads. Oh nooo, there's two more giant stone spheres, slightly smaller than the first, appeared. Great, a trio of problems for a trio of hedgehogs.

And then he saw it, their salvation: A set of speed ramps, sitting at the end of the paths. Shadow kicked off harder against the ground, and said, "Move it!"

"Move it?" Sonic peeked out of the corner of her eye and almost paused because, oh heck they had gotten close. Like on his heels close. Sonic pushed against the ground as hard as he could, with Silver practically flying behind him like a kite.

They flew across the water as the stone spheres fell into the sea. Shadow spun in midair and Sonic rolled his eyes: What a show off.

(Hypocrite.)

Sonic landed with expertise while Silver seemingly rag dolled behind him. Shadow meanwhile just stood where he had landed, as if he hadn't just did a bunch of midair spins. Letting go of Silver, Sonic said, "Guess we made it, huh? Well, we're almost to the sand banks. That should lead us to Westside Isle, if we make it before the tides change."

"Land. Land sounds nice." Silver mumbled, sounding dazed.

Guess all the flying was finally catching up to Silver. Not surprising: Tails had had a similar problem when he first started flying. Sonic patted his shoulder before padding over to the red star ring hovering in the center of what seemed to be an ancient grand hall. Nice, two red star rings. Two more and they'd be able to go for a chaos emerald.

Shadow was looking at the sky, frowning as he tracked the sun’s progress through it. "We have a couple hours yet, before the tides change, I believe."

Sonic nodded as he absorbed the red star ring. "Yep, you got it right! But we barely need an hour to get to Westside Isle, and that's just so we can let Silver catch his breath."

That earned him a sulky look from said hedgehog. "Why aren't you and Shadow out of breath?" He asked with a groan.

"I live to run, Silver!" Sonic chirped. "As for Shadow...well, he's got as good a stamina as me." Unless super forms were involved, a pained voice muttered and he cheerfully shut off that voice of guilt. He was not going to deal with that when they had other things to deal with.

Shadow shook his head. "I am more concerned about the...eggpawns? Yes, the eggpawns we've seen in the area. Why here?"

Sonc shrugged, even if he did agree with Shadow's sentiments. "Maybe he tracked my chaos control somehow? Or maybe..." He paused as something occurred to him. "Maybe the emerald landed somewhere else here."

 _That_ was a dangerous thought. If Eggman did find it, then they'd be out of luck--But also, it would explain why exactly Eggman was here at all. As far as Sonic was aware, he couldn't track chaos controls--heck, Tails still wasn't sure how chaos controls worked yet. How would Eggman know more than Tails in such a short time? Either way, if he had found the emerald...

"...Let's find dry land first." Shadow murmured, voice low so only Sonic could hear. "Silver can't handle much more."

He grinned, voice also low as he said, "Aw, Shadow, you worried for him?"

Shadow rolled his eyes, turning away. "No. I just don't want him to slow me down." Uhuh, Sonic thought, and I'm a purple porcupine. But he didn't push, even if he didn't believe a word the hedgehog said.

"Yo, Silver!" He called to the other hedgehog still seated at the bottom of the stairs. "Let's go, we're only a couple miles away!"

There was a snort as Silver pushed himself to his feet. "A couple miles might not seem like a lot to you two, but for us mere mortals it's still pretty far." Silver deadpanned as he climbed the stairs. That startled Sonic into laughing: In the short time Silver had been with them, he had refused to be anything beyond polite and somewhat timid. To hear him joke was a breath of fresh air.

Stretching, Sonic's grin was ever present. "I'm so sorry to you, the poor mere mortal. Anywaaay, let's get going before I lose my mind. I'm bad at waiting." Patience was still something Sonic needed to master--not that he was sure he'd ever master it.

That being said, the trio made their way around the great hall to the long stretch of sandy banks. There was some distant ruins along it, all of them broken and mossy from the sea water than submerged it. Sonic shrugged and began powerwalking down the banks. Silver kept paced while Shadow, paranoid it seemed, kept watch on their backs.

As it turned out, Shadow's paranoia was well earned as Eggman, sitting astride a massive eagle shaped robot, fell from the sky. "I found you, you damn hedgehogs!" He spat. "For once I'm going to win and you're going to die!"

Wow, okay. "Violence is never the answer, Eggy!" Sonic called out as he dodged the bullets that flew from the eagle's mouth. Shadow and Silver broke off from him in the opposite directions: Silver up and Shadow the other way around.

"Oh, so you off smashing of MY robots is the right answer?" Eggman practically screeched as he poked a couple buttons on the pad in front of him. Man, that was some lungs the doctor had on him. Sonic didn't know he had it in him to yell like that, dignity and all.

Sonic shrugged. "When they're threatening people? Yep." Eggman didn't seem to have answer to that as he fired from the eagle again. Egg Eagle? Or maybe it was supposed to be a hawk... Well, either way, Sonic found himself, and the other two hedgehogs, racing down the sandy banks and ruins with Eggman and his newest toy hovering above their heads.

The dropping bombs thing was a little new for Eggy's tactics: Eggman tended to try and throw bombs with these types of battles. He usually left the dropping bombs thing to his old model badniks. Either way, dodging them was easy and Silver even tossed a few back at him. Sonic couldn't help but grin at that. Damaging him with his own attacks was always a sweet vengence.

Every time they did enough damage the hawk would pull away and Sonic made a face. "Get those jets!" He called to the other two. Maybe then it'd stop flying off before they could finish it off.

He didn't see Shadow's nod nor Silver's acknowledgement as the other two began focusing their attention on the hawk's wing jets. Shadow's spin dash flashed past, the orange gold light from the dash flashing across Sonic's vision as he slammed into the first of the jets.

Sonic collided with the hawk's nose, barely registering Eggman's furious yelling above him. He grinned as he dodged the bullets sped from the opening mouth of the hawk. The jets were starting to sputter as Shadow and Silver's combined assaults on the jets started to take their toll. It was only a matter of time, Sonic thought as he landed on the sandy banks--and promptly received some wet socks.

Wait, were the tides already coming in? Sonic's eyes widened as he suddenly remembered why that was happening--that of course they were coming in earlier than they thought, the moon had been blasted apart just a month ago! How could he have forgotten something so obvious?

"Hey, we need to wrap this up!" Sonic called out. "The tide is coming in!!"

"What?! We should have another hour, at least!" Shadow yelled back mid kick.

Sonic kicked the water coming in. "Well, I mean, if you guys hadn't blown up the moon, last month--!" He rolled outta the way of one of Eggman's exploding bomb.

"Did what?!" Shadow yowled back as he was basically exploded. Ah, wasn't it a good thing hedgehogs were super durable? Of course, Shadow's confusion just reminded Sonic of Shadow's partial amnesia.

(At least Shadow wasn't trying to destroy the world this time, he thought.)

Before Sonic could reply, Silver's final retaliating bomb throw took out both of the jets out at once and the hawk seemed to sputter and crash where they stood. And Eggman? He popped like a broken eggpawn.

The trio of hedgehogs stopped to stare at the broken Eggman duplicate. "Guess he wasn't Eggman after all," Sonic said wryly. Wait. "Aw, man, how're we going to get outta here?! Me and Shadow could make it, but you, Silver--!"

"Emerald." Shadow spoke up suddenly.

Sonic sighed. "If we had one, we could use to chaos control, but..."

"No." Shadow stepped passed him and half crawled into the hawk's cockpit. When he pulled back out again, he held up the same chaos emerald Sonic had had before waking up on the sandy beaches after that botched chaos control. "Chaos Emerald--Here, and now Sonic. We don't need to search for anything."

Oh, thank chaos, it seemed today was their lucky day. "Alright! Shadow, do you think you can chaos control us to that island over there?" He pointed to the island they could see from their spot on the slowly drowning sand banks.

Shadow snorted. "Of course I can." He seemed offended that Sonic implied otherwise.

"Nice!" sonic pumped a fist. "Alright, take the lead, Shadow!"

Silver stepped up next to them, up from the waves that were coming over the sandy banks. Sonic put his hand forward in a circle and Silver placed his over Sonic's. Shadow sighed and put his hand on top and raised the emerald.

"Wait." Silver spoke up. "Chaos Control, isn't it the thing from earlier? That felt like I was being squashed--"

"Chaos Control!" Shadow cried as he pulled the energy from the emerald. Ah, oops, guess that was a bad call on Sonic's part: He should've warned Silver before expecting him to follow their example.

At least's Shadow's chaos controls weren't as painful. Sonic kinda wished his chaos controls felt more like a speedy jog instead of being squashed through a pipe.

When the power of chaos control faded, Sonic flopped down on the beach of Westside Isle, letting out a deep sigh of relief. "Laaaand." He laid back dramatically. Silver collapsed face first next to him, groaning about chaos controls.

Above them, Shadow rolled his eyes. "You're both children."

Sonic pointed a finger at him and said, "Just because you're mister ultimate lifeform doesn't mean we all are! I hate water." He paused. "Anyway, you still have the emerald?"

"No, I didn't lose it. Unlike a certain someone I could name..." Sonic puffed and crossed his arms, not at all pouting. He was an almost grown hedgehog, not a kid, so not pouting for him.

Silver rolled over next to him, having finally caught his breath. "So, uh...what was that about earlier, about the moon?" Silver wondered out loud. "I know the moon has been kinda broken up and weird for the past couple days..."

Judging by Silver's tone, he thought that was weird too. But Sonic sighed, knowing that Shadow also deserved to know what was going on in regards to the moon. "It's kinda a long story..." He began. "Hey, Shadow, you might want to sit down and tune in on this--You can't remember what happened before you fought the biolizard, right? And the moon got broken up before that so."

Shadow shrugged but seemed to follow his suggestion of getting comfortable: It seemed for all that he was kinda grumpy and distant, he wasn't a bad guy. Well, obviously, Sonic thought to himself as he began the story, otherwise Shadow would've just let the world end, back then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shadow definitely only has partial memory loss, in case anyone was wondering.
> 
> also my characterization for sonic is actually....heavily base on japanese sonic because I kinda prefer that characterization over the 'joke-jokey' characterization of the english script. jokes are still made, but. also trying to make him seem more like a teenager--like, yeah he's saved the world. But he's still?? a teenager?? teenagers do stupid stuff/think stupid stuff, take it from me i cringe at some of the stuff i did and wrote when I was 15-16.
> 
> i might write some of the stuff from the unwritten three days as extra stuff. maybe a single story with all of it....


	3. a grand metropolis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d
> 
> so much dialogue this chapter...

After the story, Sonic left Shadow and Silver to brood. The latter seemed baffled that he hadn't heard about anything in Sonic's story while Shadow just...seemed tired. Sonic wanted to reassure the dark hedgehog that they were sort of friends now, but what was a guy to say, after that story?

Regardless of how Sonic felt on that topic, there was still the task of getting in contact with Tails. Fiddling with the tracker, Sonic eventually got a shaky connection; a far cry from Sonic' earlier problem of no connection at all.

"Tails?" He asked, hoping his little brother was there to answer.

Sonic waited. And waited. No response. For a moment his heart sized: What if Tails had gone looking for him and had gotten hurt, or worse, captured? But he shook that possibility away. If he had, there was no way Eggman, puppet or not, wouldn't have rubbed it in his face.

So Tails had to be okay. He had to believe that, or else he'd run off and leave Shadow and Silver floundering.

Speaking of the other two hedgehogs...Silver was strange. Not in the 'oh weird powers' thing--almost everyone Sonic knew well had powers--but in the fact that he didn't know anything that had happened recently. Mention Chaos and the ARK Incident? He had no reaction, beyond shock at the story of the latter. How could he not know, though? It was heavily televised everywhere, everyone knew about the ARK Incident!

"Sonic?" A muffled voice broke Sonic from his train of thoughts. A muffled voice Sonic knew very well.

He grinned, wide and hard. "Tails! Boy, am I glad to hear you."

"I could say the same thing!" Tails sounded both happy and harried, like he had been worrying for days. Which...he probably had been. "What happened? Your radio silence kinda scared me..."

Sonic let himself relax, leaning against a lone tree on the beach. "Well, I didn't know there was a radio in the tracker, for one. But I kinda figured there was: You always put those in your inventions like this." He grinned. "But, hey, good news! I found Shadow! And also some bad news."

Tails puffed a breath. "Sorry, I thought I mentioned it...and is Shadow alright? That's not the bad news, is it."

"Nope, the bad news is Eggman's up to no good already." Sonic sighed into the receiver. "Looks like he's after the emeralds again--though I have no idea what for. As for whether or not Shadow is okay...well, listen to this!..."

He dug into the tale of his past few days, lingering on things that made him grin, even now. Tails gasped and worried over the moments of danger and asked him if he was eating okay. Which...reminded him that he really needed to scope out a restaurant when they got to the nearest town.

After he finished, Tails seemed to mull over it all. "Okay, so Shadow has partial memory loss, Silver might be delusional--or worse--and Eggman is up to his old tricks. Anything else?"

"We got the emerald Shadow had when he fell," Sonic said, glancing over towards said hedgehog. "I think he still has it--which makes getting place way easier now."

"Alright then! How about you guys get something to eat over there and come back to Mystic Ruins, then?" Tails was heard tapping away at something. Probably his computer, Sonic thought. "We can track Eggman's movements from there and maybe help out Silver and Shadow in the meantime."

Sonic grinned. He was good at thinking of plans in a pinch--but Tails always knew what to do when it came to the long term. "Sounds like a plan! I'll go let them know." The radio went silent and he jogged back over to the other two hedgehogs.

Silver still seemed distracted by the story Sonic had told him while Shadow was...brooding. Probably also about the story, but Sonic was going to just not touch that for now. It was better to let Shadow deal with that on his own, for now, right? That's what Sonic would've wanted, if it was him in any case.

"Got in contact with Tails." He gave them a thumbs up. "I told him what's up--Let's get to town and grab a bite to eat and then we could head there?"

"No!" Silver clasped his hands over his mouth. "I think--That Chaos Control thing makes me sick. I think if we eat and use it again I'll throw up."

Sonic raised his eyebrows and looked at Shadow, who just shrugged. "I don't need to eat, often." He stated simply. Huh, that was news to Sonic. Then again, only Rouge had known Shadow for a long period of time and he had a feeling that a 'team meal' between her, Shadow, and Eggbutt had never really been an option.

Ruffling his quills, he sighed. "Alright, so maybe we should head straight to Mystic Ruins? I know we have food there so we could eat when we get there. Sound good?"

"Better than eating now," Silver said honestly, grimacing at the thought of being sick. Not that Sonic could blame him: Sonic hated being sick, and not just because Tails refused to let him go on a run when he was sick. Just...the general feeling of being sick sucked.

With that decided, Sonic turned a faux innocent look at the dark hedgehog. Shadow squinted at him before sighing and holding out one hand. Silver got up and took his hand with Sonic as Shadow used his free hand to pull out the emerald. "Chaos Control," Shadow said and, once more, Sonic felt the push pull sensation of the emerald's power. It was different but similar all the same to the full of a super form.

Why did Shadow fall then, Sonic thought as they vanished from island beaches.

* * *

_"Agent, we have a mission for you."_

"Oh, what's that?"

_"We found where Shadow the Hedgehog would've impacted the earth. And there's an Eggman Base nearby."_

"...You're assigning me to this mission then, hm?"

_"Yes. You're the only one who can possibly deal with whatever the Doctor may have there."_

"You're including Shadow in that, aren’t you."

_"Maybe we are--But it does not change the fact that if anyone can subdue Shadow without injury, it is you."_

"Oh, I don't know about that--but I'll take it. I'll radio in with my report after I finish up, okay~?"

_"Just get going, Agent Rouge."_

* * *

"So this is Mystic Ruins, then." Shadow murmured, peering around the jungle-like sector.

Sonic shot him a bemused look. "What, never been?" He doubted Shadow hadn't--Eggman would've surely sent him there to check Tails' workshop for emeralds--but maybe he just didn't remember. It'd help if they had any sort of point of reference like--maybe something he didn't remember was familiar and things he had never done weren't. Ugh, they really needed Rouge, Sonic thought.

The dark hedgehog grunted. "No." As bad as Knuckles used to be, with conversation.

Silver had walked away from them, peering into the underbrush and up towards the train tracks that drifted through the sector. "Where do those go?" He asked curiously, pointing them out.

"Oh, those?" Sonic shrugged as he began walking to Tails' workshop and their home. "Station Square is on one end--I'm not sure about the other, though. I only follow the train tracks when the trains are out and they never are when I'm around Mystic Ruins."

The white hedgehog hummed an acknowledgement as he and Shadow trailed in Sonic's wake. Everything looked the same as usual. Maybe there were some ruffled branches and bushes from the usual storms that passed through, but otherwise, it looks the same as it had since Chaos had torn through Station Square: Green.

It was actually kinda nice, because the Mystic Ruins before Chaos? The plants had been dying, leaving behind large swaths of brown loose dirt. Even the plants that had still been around looked like they were starting to die. When Chaos' rainstorms passed over the area, it was like the rains had revitalized the whole place. It was ironic, considering Station Square's fate.

Sonic ignored the tightening in his chest as he stopped in front of Tails' Workshop for a split second. It'll be two years, in six months, since Chaos. He wondered what he'd do, then, or if Station Square would do something.

Shaking his head, he pushed the door open and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Taiiiiiils! I'm home!"

There was a quiet crash and Sonic winced. He probably didn't expect him back so soon. But as Sonic walked into the house, he noticed that something was off. Like...he froze, as Tails walked into the living room. "Hey, Sonic!" Tails smiled. "You're back earlier than I thought you would be--ah."

"Tails!!" Sonic was at his side, looking down in horror at the cast on the fox's left leg. "What the heck happened?! Your leg was fine before...!"

Tails shook his head. "I...kinda screwed up and got hurt a couple days ago. It's fine, it should be healed in a month. Hey, Shadow! It's nice to finally be able to meet you properly. And I guess you're Silver?" Tails smiled and waved at the other two hedgehogs, who had followed on Sonic's heels.

Sonic puffed. "Don't change the subject! Tails, what happened?"

The fox sighed. "...I went to one of Eggman's old bases, in the forest nearby. He always forgets to disconnect his old bases from his mainframe and--Well, I accidentally activated a trap and got hurt--but I'm fine, see? Like I said before, it'll heal in a few weeks."

 _But you're not going anywhere, like that,_ Sonic thought. Which meant--there was little point in getting Knuckles so the three of them could go off and find out more about what Eggy was up to, huh?

Tails shook his head before fully turning his attention towards Shadow and Silver once more. "Sonic gave me a heads up on your two's situations. I don't...really know how to help you, right now, Shadow. I can look up Professor Gerald's stuff on you I, uh, got from GUN but that'll take time. As for you Silver..." Tails hesitated, biting his lip. That was never a good expression, Sonic thought. "...There is no Northe Town, Silver."

Silver's mouth fell open. "What--But it has to??" He clenched his hands against his chest as he leaned back. "Are--Are you sure you didn't just miss it? Its north of Trolley Circle, but it's not as well-known--Especially after the Solaris Storm six months ago, but--"

"The _What_ Storm?" Sonic interrupted. "Solaris?? I have literally never heard of that." Well, it. Solaris in general didn't ring any bells for Sonic--save for maybe something he'd hear once, traveling. But it would've been so long ago...Before Chaos, and Square Flood.

"Solaris is the patron god of Soleanna," Tails said, "But I haven't heard of any sort of storm with the title of Solaris."

The other three watched as Silver seemed to try and figure out what the heck they were talking about. Sonic was sure it made sense--He's pretty sure he would've heard about some storm called Solaris from Tails, if there had been one. But Silver seemed so sure...

He wondered if Silver was as delusional as Tails thought he might be.

Silver took a long deep breath as he composed himself. "The Solaris Storm--I didn't see it myself, but from what I know from the news, it was a fire storm caused by the God Solaris. Blaze the Cat stopped it but Trolley Circle is still recovering, from what my uncle said."

Sonic glanced at Tails, who suddenly looked like he had had an epiphany. "Silver, what date was the Solaris Storm?" He asked, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

"2006, August 15th," Silver said with absolute surety.

Sonic coughed, as if he was choking on his own breath. "I-I'm sorry, August 15th?" There was no way Sonic could ever forget that date. And there was no fire storm then, he knew that for sure.

"Um, yes?" Silver glanced at him and then back at Tails. "That was six months ago, and Kintober has been pretty quiet since it happened but everyone is pretty sure he's going to pull something again."

Tails seemed to be thinking hard. "Six months ago...But for us, the Square Flood was a year and a half ago...But if he is from..."

Sonic glanced at Shadow before returning his gaze to Tails, confused by his little brother's muttering. What was it that Tails had realized? "Tails, what's up?"

"I think Silver is from another dimension, adjacent to us." Tails declared, straightening as much as he could on his crutches. "Except a year ago--Time differences, probably. If we got the emeralds we could get you back home but that shouldn't be too hard. We'll probably pick them up when we go after Eggman."

"Uhuh, there's no we this time, buddy!" Tails' head jerked to a stern looking Sonic. "Your ankle is fractured--or broken, for all I know--and I can't let you come with me, fractured or broken."

Tails' eyes glinted and he said, "Silver, Shadow, you two can share the guest room upstairs on the right. I need to talk with Sonic. We’ll call you down when we’re done."

Shadow watched them for a long moment before nodding silently and heading up the stairs, Silver trailing after him and looking dazed. Normally, Sonic would clap his hand on the poor guy's shoulder and try to cheer him up with a joke, but Tails' expression stopped him. Yeah, he definitely wanted to talk. In private.

What in the world did Tails want to talk about? If it was about coming with Sonic, he should know better than to try and run around and save the world with a broken ankle. Not that he had any room to talk but...well. Semantics.

* * *

Sonic fiddled with his gloves.

Tails' talk had been...illuminating. Sonic was still a little upset that Tails wanted to push himself when he was, you know, injured, but they'd come to a compromise: Tails would only be support this time, and would call in Knuckles if things got a little too dicey or they needed outside help.

Which wasn't likely, but it made Tails feel better. And who was Sonic to deny his little brother that?

At least the previous night's dinner had been good, if a little awkward because of the whole 'we used to be enemies' thing with Shadow. Sonic had hoped they'd gotten past that but it still lingered. Thankfully, the dark hedgehog had agreed to actually eat, even if he didn't 'need' to. Of course there had been that argument about sleeping arrangements: Shadow had refused the bed, and cited the couch was good enough.

Tails had just snorted at the argument and said Shadow was as stubborn as Sonic--which had started an entirely different argument.

He glanced at the door as he heard it open and waved with a grin at Shadow. "Hey, Shadow! I thought you and Silver were helping out Tails with tracking Eggman. What's up?"

The dark hedgehog crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. "Silver is helping him--while looking for his home on the maps." Shadow seemed unperturbed by his own comments.

Sonic made a disgruntled face for a second before he leaned back on the deck. It could be worse, he supposed, but... "I'm worried about Silver, actually." Sonic shrugged lightly to belay his own words. "Mostly because he's mentioned a bunch of stuff there's no way we wouldn't know about it. You know?"

"I suppose." Shadow shrugged. "I wouldn't know--Ignoring my memory loss, I haven't been awake long enough to know."

He winced. "Yeah...speaking of that, do you remember what the date was when you woke up or is it one of those 'can't remember' things?" The dark hedgehog eyed him as he pulled away from the door frame and walked out of the house fully, now standing practically behind Sonic. He tried a grin. "You, uh, don't have to answer that a`course."

Shadow closed his eyes, as if thinking. Right, okay awkward. Sonic smiled wryly at him before returning his attention to the distant sea and the sun slowly climbing towards noon. Yeah, he probably wasn't going to answer, even if he did know. Oh well. Sonic kinda walked into that, prying and all.

"No I don't." Sonic jolted as Shadow spoke. "As I said, there's very little of the time after I woke up that I remember, besides that final hour."

Huh, that was...strangely frank. Sonic had almost expected Shadow not to answer, considering how tight lipped Shadow had always been with their brief encounters the month before. Even during that final battle--then again, they didn't really have any time to talk during that fight. Still, though, only a hour over a couple days?

It makes him wonder how much they really knew about Shadow.

"Huh." Sonic scratched his quills with a wry smile. "Think we can get your memories back?"

The dark hedgehog shook his head and Sonic glanced at him as Shadow crossed his arms. "Even if I can, I doubt it will be easily. But..." He seemed to hesitate before lowering his voice to a whisper hat Sonic could barely hear. "I think I'm fine. Or that I will be fine." 

Sonic hummed lightly and stretched. "Yeah, alright. Me and Tails are still going to try and help you out, though. Even if you are fine." He felt like he should do something for Shadow, because as far as he knew, Shadow might've not lost his memories if Sonic had caught him before he fell. Never mind the raging guilt and regret he felt about not keeping a closer eye on him.

"Do what you want." Shadow shrugged.

Oh, there's the flippancy Sonic remembered from their witty banters. He shot Shadow a grin and stood up. Maybe... He'd like to race Shadow outside of a deadly battle. "Hey, Shadow!" Sonic bounced on his heels. I was wondering, do you wanna--"

A voice cut him off. "Sonic, Shadow!" Silver zoomed onto the deck, skidding to a stop almost on top of the former. He took a moment to catch his breath before he straightened. "Tails--Tails found one of Eggman's bases!"

Sonic exchanged a look with Shadow before they both headed back into the workshop. Later, Sonic thought, he'd ask Shadow for a race later. Right now they had a doctor to take down.

* * *

He poked at the communicator on his wrist until he got the screen to light up. Tails grinned at him from the other end and he said, "Alright, you guys in Grand Metropolis?"

"Yeah, we got here safe." Sonic grinned as he peered into the skyscraper skyline. "So where's the base? And why couldn't we just teleport in?"

Tails sighed. "First off, I know where the base's building is--but it's on the same spot as a power plant. I don't think you want to pop into a power plant and get arrested--and the base is about 10 miles to your left. You'll have to go through the city."

Sonic grinned and exchanged looks with Shadow and Silver. "Gotcha, Tails! Let's go, you guys!" Letting the communicator's screen go dark, he pulled his glove cuff over the watch and leapt down to the maintenance road below them.

Shadow landed ahead of him and Silver at his side, the latter hovering in place with a teal aura. He looked down through their path, a green haze all that was separating them from falling down at least twenty stories. He whistled before looking back up and revving. Shadow fell into his ready stance while Silver seemed to be trying 'rev' up as well.

He couldn't help another grin before he finally let his feet fly as he tore down the maintenance roads. Shadow's air skates buzzed behind him and he could see Silver's teal aura out of the corner of his eye. Good, they were keeping up--that was one of his worries, when he had finally agreed to the team up after Tails had pushed him for. Well, more so for Silver, he thought as he lazily spin dashed an eggpawn, as Shadow could easily keep up.

Push pull and Sonic curled up. The only sign that anything had changed, from what he could tell, were that he could feel his spins hitting something--probably eggpawns. As the push pull faded, Sonic landed on his feet and took a quick glance to make sure he wasn't going to run right off the edge. Huh, he thought, guess Silver dropped him in just the right spot.

Kicking off and down the path, Sonic almost lost all control over gravity as, for whatever reason, the green roads reversed it. He flailed because, wow, this was nothing like a super form in space. "I've got you!" Silver called, grasping both Sonic and Shadow, who had also been caught in the trap and lifting them all across the gravity well. When he dropped them, Silver leaned forward against his knees with a gasping breath.

"Guess we're on the right track." Sonic puffed. "Or else we wouldn't have a trap like that in our way: These're maintenance roads, so..."

Shadow straightened. "If this was a GUN run power plant, I wouldn't be surprised if they placed such traps." He spat GUN like it was a curse word. "But it isn’t. And the eggpawns are enough evidence of Eggman, in any case…"

Silver clasped his hands, looking confused. "What’s GUN?"

As Shadow opened his mouth to explain, Sonic interrupted. "We need to get that data first but--eh, lowdown is that GUN is some organization that tries to protect the world. We can tell you more later!" He bounced in place, impatient to get a move on. The sooner they could get the data, the sooner Tails could start working on fixing, well, everything. And Sonic could smash some more bots, in case Eggman was trying something again.

Shadow rolled his eyes at him before he took the lead. That was a good thing, because on the next turn Shadow slid and broke through a barrier. The shattered bits of the barrier had the Eggman logo--which meant that this was definitely an active base. Sonic grinned: Nice, bot smashing! And possibly getting in trouble, for breaking into that Power Plant they were rapidly coming up to.

He's still a little amused by how worried Tails got about him being arrested: He was technically a fugitive even before Chaos flooded Station Square because of his vigilantism. After Chaos and all that? Well, getting pardoned and given immunity for vigilantism was nice. Even if Sonic could still be arrested for other stuff.

(That was how GUN had gotten away with arresting him before, when Shadow had stolen that Chaos Emerald. It didn't fall under vigilantism so...no immunity. Or GUN just really didn't like Sonic, he never knew for sure.)

"Yow!" Sonic yelped as he almost sent himself over the end of the maintenance road. His arms waved as he balanced on the edge, trying not to fall--and then let out a sigh of a relief as Shadow grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. He grinned. "Whoops. Sorry, guess I wasn't paying attention! Any idea on how to cross this?" Sonic gestured at the wide gap that, if he hadn't almost dropped off the edge, he probably could've jumped over.

Shadow shook his head, kneeling on the edge and peering down into the shadows of the distant city floor. Silver on the other hand seemed to be thinking. "We could go back and you two could run and jump over? I can fly after with my telekinesis."

Sonic jolted. "Aaah, of course!" He pointed at Silver. "Use your telekinesis and throw us over! Or, you know, fly all three of us over!"

The other two hedgehogs stared at him until Shadow face palmed as if he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that while Silver flushed. "I might drop you down there, though..." Silver muttered, eyeballing the gap.

"Then just throw us while we're curled up!" Sonic tapped his foot. "Have more confidence, Silver! You've gotten pretty good with your telekinesis--There's no way I would let you use it on me as a pinball if I didn't trust you and your abilities. Right, Shadow?" _Come on, back me up!_

Shadow sighed. "I do not like being controlled. I would not...let you do that, Silver, if I did not...trust you." Man, it was as if Shadow was having his teeth pulled. He really wasn't any good with emotions--not that different from Knuckles, now that Sonic thought about it. Sonic still grinned at him, while Shadow turned his head away to hide his flush.

Silver smiled wanly before straightening. "Alright, I'll do my best! Get ready." Sonic curled up into a ball as Silver's telekinesis washed over him. The push pull feeling was always a strange feeling, to Sonic. He wondered what it felt like to Silver.

And then he was shot like a cannonball across the gap he could not see. He swallowed down the feeling of thrill and uncurled, his feet skidding across the last of the maintenance road. He let out a deep breath and spun around, waving at the other two. Shadow's air skates flared as he uncurled and landed next to him.

The psychic of the trio landed last, a full minute after the other two as he cautiously flew across the gap.

Sonic gave him a thumbs up before bouncing around towards the far end of the road, where a maintenance hatch laid half opened. He narrowed his eyes at it: Why was it open? As far as Sonic was aware, it should be closed, right? He glanced at the other two and Shadow looked as suspicious as Sonic felt.

"That's the entrance into the power plant Tails pointed out to us, right?" Silver stepped up, his hand on the edge of the hatch. "When we were trying to find the right route here."

Shadow nodded as he eyeballed the hatch. "I don't recall Tails mentioning the maintenance hatch being open." Yeah he was definitely as suspicious as Sonic was.

"It's probably a trap!" Sonic chirped as he stepped up next to Silver. "So let's spring the trap."

Silver hesitated but stepped back. Sonic quirked a grin, because well. He was the most experienced out of the three of them in springing traps. It only made sense for him to go first.

Pushing the hatch fully open, Sonic took a couple steps into the dark maintance hallway. He could hear the distant crashes and zipping sparks of a power plant ahead and above him. Sonic squinted his eyes against the darkness, trying to see...something, anything. But, as far as he could see, there was nothing of threat immediately ahead of him.

"It's clear!" He called over his shoulder and jolted as he saw Shadow almost right behind him. "Ack--Shadow, you're...pretty quiet."

There was a flash of a smirk before Shadow peered into the darkness as Silver joined them. "Sonic's right, it's clear." He declared. "Has Tails downloaded the schematics of the power plant yet?"

 _Not yet_ , Sonic wanted to say, but he knew he needed to call Tails to be sure. Thumbing on the wrist communicator, he waited for the screen to flash to life once more. When it did, with Tails frowning at him, Sonic said, "Did you ever find the schematics for the power plant? And maybe find any weird doors or something that lead to Eggy's base?"

Tails shook his head with a grimace. "Sorry, Sonic," He said, "But their security is better than GUN's. It'll take me too long to ty and break in from the outside."

Shadow leaned over Sonic's shoulder. "We're inside the power plant now," He said, "If we got the communicator hooked to a terminal here, would you be able to?"

"Yeah!" Tails' eyes seemed to light up. "Yeah, I could! Find a terminal and I can find the base's entrance."

Sonic grinned. "Well, we've got a goal! I'll call you up when we find one, Tails!" Tails chirped a 'yeah!' before the communicator shut off. Sonic looked up with a smirk. "Alright you two, ready to find a computer terminal."

"After you." Shadow deadpanned.

* * *

Sonic crushed an eggpawn beneath both his feet with a cheery grin. He rolled his shoulders and jumped off the remains. He looked up and tilted his head. "Did you find a terminal, guys?" He asked.

Silver made a face. "Uh, yeah we did." He reached down and picked up one of the shattered eggpawn pieces. "You had fun?"

He shrugged as he walked over, ignoring the way the pale red lights of the hallway painted Silver's fur a deep red. "Bot smashing is always fun. Okay, where's the terminal?" Sonic asked.

"This way." Silver led the two of them towards a terminal hidden between some glowing pipes. Shadow was still there, tapping at the terminal. When they joined him, Silver tilted his head at him. "What're you doing?"

Shadow shook his head before stepping away from it. "I was trying to see if this terminal is active. It is--but it's locked down."

"Tails can break into it." Sonic shrugged as he turned the communicator back on. "Hey, Tails buddy, how do I hook his thing up?"

Tails rolled his eyes before he tapped his wrist. "First, open up the terminal. You can hook the communicator up to a slot in there." Sonic hummed and pulled a USB wire free from the communicator as Shadow tugged the terminal panel off.

It was easy to find a place to hook the USB into once he was looking inside the terminal. The light from the communicator lite up the insides of the terminal so he could see--and when he hooked the USB in Tails almost immediately laughed out loud. "Seriously? This is all they have?" Tails was shaking his head. "Trying to get into their servers off site is hard--this? This is going to be easy."

Tails was right, as only ten minutes later (to Sonic's immense relief) Tails had hacked in and found the schematics for the entire power plant. "It looks like there's an odd door near the cargo elevator on the 'bottom' floor of the power plant--probably leads to Eggman's base." Tails explained.

"Alright, gotcha!" Sonic grinned at his little brother. "I'm going to disconnect and turn off the com now--Talk to you later, bro!"

His 'you too!' was half cut off as Sonic switched the communicator off and pulled the USB out. Backing out of the terminal inside, he saw Silver and Shadow waiting patiently. "It's down at the bottom, by the cargo elevator," Sonic said.

"Why do they need a cargo elevator? This is a power plant." Silver groaned, exasperated.

Shadow sighed as he turned away from the terminal and squinted against the harsh red lights. "For Eggman's robots, I'm assuming. Shall we proceed?"

Giving the two a thumbs up, Sonic said, "Yeah! Sooner we get this done sooner I can get a chili dog here...I heard that the ones here are really good..." Ignoring the two's bemused looks at the mention of chili dogs, they all headed out of the hallway and into another set of corridors that led to the main part of the power plant. From there it would be easy to find the cargo elevator.

What wasn't easy was the sudden influx in not just more eggpawns but tougher ones on top of the weaker ones. Sonic delighted in breaking the latter but the former needed a bit more fire power--Fire power Shadow was happy to provide with his chaos emerald.

Meanwhile, Silver was finally getting some good experience in carrying multiple people long distances. Mostly up, as there was apparently no way to get to the cargo elevator from the level they had started on.

Which was fine, as far as Sonic was concerned. This wasn't as nearly as bad as the one time he'd had to re-cross the same ground in different time periods--Eggman really needed to stick to just one point in time. Still, though, that was what they had to do to find the cargo elevator.

And they found it: Guarded by one of Eggman's bigger bots. It wasn't as strong as that Hawk they'd fought the day before but Sonic didn't want to be hit by that hammer. And he was a little worried about what would happen if that hammer hit the floor: It was as green and translucent as the maintenance roads they'd taken to the plant.

"Silver, can you make sure it's hammer never hits the ground?" Sonic called out to him. The silver hedgehog nodded sharply and kept back, his hands raised in preparation to catch the hammer with his powers. Sonic turned to Shadow. "Yo, you and me, spindash it together?"

Shadow eyeballed the bot before nodding. "We need to destroy it, now," He said with a tone of finality. Sonic nodded in agreement before offering his hand. Shadow took it after a moment's hesitation and the two revved up.

This was a new experience for Sonic: The only other he'd ever be able to spin dash with was Amy and Amy...she didn't like spin dashing. It tore up her clothes and she felt like she didn't have any control. Sonic was pretty sure that was because of lack of experience but he wasn't going to make her do it she didn't want to.

But with Shadow...It was strange. It reminded him of their fight against the Finalhazard, even though they weren't super now. It was like Shadow clicked with him in a way that only Knuckles and Tails had before.

And it was kinda a little terrifying, just because of that.

Sonic would ignore that for now. He could try and figure otu why that was after they'd beaten Eggman again. Until then...well, fear has no place when you're always dodging death's door.

Like right now, actually, as after their first spindash, the bot had decided to try to smash him like a pancake. Just him, not Shadow. He supposed Shadow wasn't in their databases yet as a priority. He would be, though, by the end of this, Sonic knew.

That was how Tails had become a priority one.

"Nice, Silver!" Sonic called out, though, as the hammer had stopped an inch from his head. The teal aura had been all he'd needed to tell it was Silver's doing. Rolling out from under it, he dashed over to Shadow. "Hey, Shadow, I think if we spindash that armor again we can break its wires and stuff!"

"Wires and stuff?" He deadpanned as Sonic skidded to a stop next to him. "You have to be kidding me." Shadow still held out his hand.

Sonic grinned. "Robotics aren't my forte." 

The second spindash did exactly what Sonic had hoped it would--it dug through the armor and into the insides of the robot. Wires cut and wriggling around with loose energy (chaos, electricity? Who knew). Silver caught the hammer and gently laid it on the ground as the robot seized up and slowly collapsed, knees first.

A certain blue speedster bounced in place, looking pretty pleased with himself. "Told ya it'd work--Eggman always forgets to do a double plating. Honestly, you'd think he'd remember considering how often I break his stuff." Sonic shook his head with a wry grin.

"Found the cargo elevator." Silver spoke up, pointing to something behind the other two hedgehogs.

Shadow turned first and warily stepped onto it, tapping at parts of the floor as Sonic stepped on as well. "What are you doing?" Silver asked, kneeling down next to Shadow.

He looked up at them. "That bot may have been guarding this, but I don't think that was the only trap."

Of course, that was when Murphey's Law kicked in and the floor of the Cargo elevator suddenly snapped open and all three of them fell down into the darkness.

They fell and fell for who knows how long until Sonic felt himself slowing down. Under normal circumstances that would be annoying but the teal aura he could see lighting up around his arms and legs--around his whole body--he knew that Silver was trying to slow them down. Well, slowly slow them down, which kinda seemed dumb but, Sonic was well aware of what would happen to bones if he suddenly stopped midair.

As it was, when they finally touched down on the actual cargo elevator, Sonic was grateful to have full control of his momentum again. He took a few experimental runs around the edges of the elevator before turning to the others. "Thanks for the save, Silver," Sonic said with a grin, "And hey! We got where we wanted to go. Let's go find that weird door."

"Far too optimistic..." Shadow grumbled as he followed on Sonic's heels out of the elevator and the shaft. Sonic pretended he didn't hear him.

For some reason, the floor they had landed on was completely dark, with a couple of distant harsh red lights lighting up the corridors just out of sight. Sonic frowned and squinted: He really wished his night vision wasn't so bad. Even Amy had better night vision than he did, and they were both hedgehogs!

(Of course, she was still viciously colorblind so maybe that negated any uses her night vision might have.)

Shadow stepped forward and turned to the left, grabbing Sonic's had. "Silver, take Sonic's other hand," He said as they formed a hedgehog train. Sonic understood what he was trying to do. It didn't make it any less demeaning.

Maybe he'd ask Tails if he could make night vision goggles for him later...

The door was right where Tails had said it would be and the trio stepped out of the darkness into a corridor entirely lite up with harsh red lights. "Well, this is weird," Sonic said as he let go of Silver and Shadow's hands, "Usually Eggman's bases are dark or lit up. They don't have emergency lights..."

"I don't like this." Shadow muttered. Both he and Silver were tense whilst Sonic felt himself relax. Trouble in an Eggman Base was the usual affair--even if it was a little weird about the emergency lights.

What really set Sonic on edge was the sight of broken eggpawns. He was the one who broke in and broke eggpawns--who the heck could've done this? Sonic certainly didn't remember trashing any base in Grand Metropolis. Eh, maybe they'd find something about what happened on the computers.

Speaking of, it seemed they'd easily come across the computer base. Sonic preemptively tugged out the wire and jabbed it into one of the computer slots, under another panel. The communicator flashed on in response and Tails' voice echoed in the overly large room. "You got to the computers, huh? It looks like they're only barely running--let me try and restore power." After a few minutes, the lights flickered to life. "Okay! I'm going to start looking for info..."

"Gotcha, bro." Sonic chirped before slipping the watch off and leaving it on next to the keyboard. He jogged over to Silver and Shadow, who were both peering out into the corridor. "Something up?"

Shadow shook his head, his crimson eyes burning as he glowered into the shadows just outside the door. "Nothing. I...don't like this place. At all."

Eggman bases were a little unsettling. He remembered, back in the first adventures and the first bases he'd broken through, Sonic had been more than a little anxious. Having Tails second time around had been pretty helpful, at least for his anxiety. As the years went by, he got used to it, but...

Well, he could understand Shadow's trepidation.

"Neither do I." Silver admitted as he also peered down the hallways. "I don't suppose Tails is done with getting the info yet?"

Sonic laughed a bit. "He's good, but not good enough to do it with a snap of his fingers. Even if he wanted to. He should be almost done, though."

A beeping came up behind them and the three of them turned to the sound of Tails' calling Sonic's name. Jogging over to the communicator, Sonic picked it up and slipped it back on. "What's up, Tails?" He asked the fox.

"There's almost nothing on the servers here." Tails sounded baffled and confused, as if he couldn't understand why. "Not only has the servers been wiped, all the connections to the main database has been severed too. This is not normal." His younger brother sounded almost scared as he tapped furiously at his keyboard.

Silver peered at the screen. "That's not normal, then?"

Tails shook his head, his eyes on the screen away from the camera. "Usually he just leaves it alone. His bases self-destruct a lot, so he usually doesn't bother with wiping it: They'd be destroyed, after all. But someone went to trouble of wiping these servers and destroying the connection to the main database." He narrowed his eyes, his eyes darkening. "Which either means Eggman is wising up, or someone else is involved."

"Juuust to clarify." Sonic spoke up. "But does that include the security footage?"

Silver and Shadow exchanged looks as Tails frowned at him. "Security footage? I mean, yes, but why?" Tails asked.

Sonic sighed and slumped a little. "I was just wondering who might've smashed the bots here. They look like they've been torn up by spindashes but I know I haven't been here before." He explained.

"Oh! The bots there are destroyed?" Tails began tapping at his keyboard again. "I wish I could restore the footage but I can't. It's all been erased far too well."

He clicked his tongue. "Well, I guess we gotta head back, then?"

Tails shook his head with a frown. "There is a little bit, but it's been heavily encrypted. I can parse through it, but it'll take some time. Er--it might be best if you three head out, though. Power Plant security might show up, claiming this area as HEXAeco property, if Eggman has cleared it out. And Sonic? Don't get arrested. Again." Tails had the put upon look of someone who had had to bail someone out of jail multiple times.

Which he, uh, had but semantics.

"I've got immunity!" He whined but did tug the wire free and back away from the computers. "Okay, okay, let's go. Fresh air would be nice..." Tails rolled his eyes at him and smiled as he explained the way out of the power plant of the floor above.

The way out was pretty simple: It was just another maintenance road--though one that was significantly shorter than the one they had first come to the power plant on. A little strange, Sonic thought, that they hadn't chosen that one but maybe Tails just hadn't seen it? They did only just get the schematics for the whole place.

The road was the same translucent green: It was a bit strange how fond of it the maintenance guys seemed to be. Did none of them have a fear of heights? Sonic didn’t but he knew plenty of people did. Ah well, that was a hazard of working maintenance in Grand Metropolis, wasn’t it?

(He didn't notice Shadow's resolute stare at the sky, as if avoiding looking at the abyss below their feet.)

At the end of the route was a platform and, under normal circumstances, Sonic would've kept going. Except, you know, he saw someone familiar and pink. He turned on his heel and made to walk back to the Power Plant when Shadow snagged his wrist. They had a brief stare down which ended up unlucky for Sonic: He just should've kept going because those seconds were all Amy needed to see him and crush him into a hug.

Ugh, why was it always when she saw him that she suddenly became faster than a Chaos Control?

"Hey...Amy..." He muttered, looking up at the duo who accompanied Amy: The familiar large form of Big the Cat and a rabbit he hadn't seen before. There was a bow tie wearing chao with her, eyeing him suspiciously.

Amy sighed as she pulled back. "I've been looking everywhere for you! You weren't at Mystic Ruins and Tails didn't know where you were and I wanted to know! Why you took Chocola! Or I guess why you didn't but."

But what? Wait... "Who's Chocola??" He asked, baffled. Also, why was he being accused of kidnapping?

"Um...He's one of my chao..." The rabbit girl whispered, kicking the ground lightly. "And....Y-you were the one who took him, Mister Sonic. Why did you do that...?" Oh no, she looked like she was going to cry and Sonic felt sick, for multiple reasons. Crying kids and also someone framing him for something he didn't do. Again.

He shook his head. "I haven't seen _any_ Chao in a couple weeks, and the last one I _did_ see was my own chao. Are you sure you're not, uh, getting mixed up?" Seriously. He'd been stranded on an island for the past couple of days.

Amy put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot. "Sonic, the guy was blue!! And super fast--Cream saw you! Who else could it have been?" Well, at least they got the color right this time--Wait, that was not the point.

He sighed. "How long ago was this?"

"Three days ago!" Amy started tapping her foot again, impatient.

"Yeah, see, that can't have been me," He said confidently, "I was busy being stranded with Shadow and Silver to be doing any sort of chao napping."

She paused and gave his companions a wild look before suddenly launching herself at Shadow. He looked, for a split second, frantic and confused as she hugged him tightly. _Haha, know my pain, Shadow._ "Shadow!" She cried. "I--You're okay! I'm glad, we all thought--Well, I guess what we thought doesn't matter now." Amy was clearly smiling as she pulled away, her hands patting Shadow's shoulders.

...Okay so maybe Sonic felt a little bad for throwing Shadow under the metaphorical bus, because man did he have the look of someone who wanted to fling themselves into the void. Better intervene before Shadow tried to do just that. "So, yeah! Can't have been me for the obvious reasons." Sonic shrugged as he side stepped between them. “`Sides, what motive would I have to steal a kid’s chao? Seems kinda creepy, to me.”

Amy pulled away from them, frowning at Sonic as she thought. Suddenly, she turned away as something occurred to her and took Cream by the hand. "Come on, Cream. I think...it's not Sonic," She said softly. He frowned internally: What had changed her mind right out of the blue like that?

"But Chocola..." Cream whispered, tears shining in her eyes.

Sonic winced: Ugh, is he really going to do this? "Hey." The duo turned to him, Big hovering over them like a slightly droozy bodyguard. _Please don't smash me if I make her cry on accident._ "Look, uh. How about the three of us help you find some new leads, okay?"

Amy smiled at him, bright and happy as Cream suddenly leapt forward. "Y-you really will, Mister Sonic?" She asked tearfully as she grasped his hands.

"--yeah!" Sonic grinned at her, relaxing as the girl seemed to perk up. "Right, guys?"

Silver looked uncomfortable with being put on the spot while Shadow just looked tired--it seemed he was willing to go along with just anything now. "Oh, right!" Amy suddenly thrust out a hand to Silver. "I'm Amy Rose! This is Cream Brea and Big the Cat! And Cheese, of course. You're...?"

The white hedgehog flushed at her forward nature. "S-Silver! Nice to meet you all...?" He shook her hand and she smiled at him before turning away. Silver shot Sonic a desperate look. "Is this really okay? Tails...”

His concern about the situation was nice, but Sonic shook his head. "Even if he does find something from that data, we can still pick up some info about Eggman in Casino Park--which is also the best place to look for any info on stolen chao." He grinned at them. "So, basically, we've got similar goals. Why not help each other?"

Even if Sonic really did hope Amy wouldn't suffocate him with a hug again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: I actually deleted a scene from this chapter that's going to show up later. It just didn't seem important enough to keep so.
> 
> idk why this chapter became so diaolgue heavy, it just...happened. at least shadow talked some more...


	4. bingo bingo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d

"Are you sure about involving him? I don't want him yelling at us about the Master Emerald again..." Sonic groaned into the communicator.

Tails rolled his eyes at him from the other side of the screen. "Look, Knuckles can really help out! I need to get access to the main database and the only way to do that is to get to a base that still has a connection--which is the Mystic Ruins base. I'll call him, he goes in, and you guys help Amy, Cream, and Big find out more about her chao." Tails tilted his chin, looking distinctly proud of himself. Which was...fair, because it did make the most sense. He just kind of wished he could be there too.

Sonic ruffled his quills with a sigh and grin. "Alright, make sure Knuckles doesn't get himself blown up." He joked, grinning at the communicator screen.

His little brother rolled his eyes at him. "It's Knuckles." He deadpanned and Sonic would give him that: Even if Knuckles did set off a trap he'd probably shrug it off as if it had just been a small annoying bug. The guy was tenacious, that way.

Didn't stop Sonic from wishing he could be there too, invading that Eggman base. If he wasn't helping out Amy's group find Cream's chao--or at elast leads to her chao--Sonic would probably be dragging Shadow and Silver back to the Ruins so they could break into the Eggman Base with him.

The brothers exchanged goodbyes and Sonic turned off the communicator. Looking up, he spotted Silver talking with Cream and Big, probably doing his best to cheer Cream up. Silver was actually pretty good at that, Sonic had noticed. He just seemed good with kids. As for Shadow...

Looking around, he spotted Shadow menacing some criminal types, a pair of skunks, who seemed terrified by Shadow. Sonic rolled his eyes and began walking towards him to fend him off the two trembling skunks. Amy stepped in between them with a serious expression, before Sonic could get close.

"Sonic." Amy gave him a serious look before glancing around worriedly. "About the person who took Chocola...I think I know who it was."

What. He tilted his head at her with a faint frown. If she'd known who kidnapped Chocola, why hadn't she said anything? "Okay...well, who is it?" He asked.

Amy gave him a cagey look before sighing. "I--I really didn't think it could be him but besides Shadow, he's the only one who can keep up with you, sort of, and is also blue..." She paused. "I think it was Metal Sonic."

Sonic stilled, staring at the harsh neon lights playing across her face. Amy was the only person he could think of, besides maybe Tails, who would think of Metal Sonic. Did anyone besides them even know about Metal Sonic?

He didn't know, but he kinda wish he did.

"Why do you think he would take a chao, though?" Sonic asked, trying to ignore the bad taste in his mouth. "Doesn't seem his style, does it?"

Amy shook her head. "If it was him then shouldn't we be asking what Eggman wants with a chao?"

Oh, duh. But if Metal Sonic was involved, then they really needed to keep their heads up and ears alert: Eggman only saved Metal Sonic for stuff he was serious about. But it did make one wonder what exactly Eggman wanted with a chao. What the heck could he be planning?

Ruffling his quills, Sonic sighed. "Alright, point. But now we've got a lead: Find Eggman, and we can find Chocola!" And stop him from taking over the world.

Amy grinned at him. "Let's get the others then--! Oh, watch it!" She snapped as a pair of skunks shoved past her. The same two skunks that Shadow had been menacing, a couple minutes ago.

Shadow surged passed them and hissed over his shoulder to them. "They know something about Eggman!"

Ah _nuts_. Sonic turned to follow him and said, "Amy! Go get Silver, Big, and Cream! I'll go get those two with Shadow!" He barel heard Amy's returning 'Yeah, okay!' before he was on Shadow's heels. "Shadow! What exactly do they know?!"

"They work for him," Shadow said, his voice sharp as a knife, "Or at least they've been hired for a job for him. They might know where his active base is, right now!"

Which would be two birds with one stone. Sonic grinned brightly at the thought: The sooner they take out Eggman, the sooner they can start focusing on other things. Like getting Silver home and helping Shadow with his memories.

Sonic punched a fist in the air. "Alright! Let's catch `em and get `em to tell us where old Eggbutt is, get Chocola back, and stop him from taking over the world!"

"What was that about the chao?" Shadow asked as he kicked through a barrier.

He laughed as he dodged the remains. "We think Metal Sonic took Chocola for Eggman, for...some reason." Sonic still wished he knew why--It jsut seemed silly, even if it was a standard 'evil' thing to do. Okay, silly for Eggman, who had once ruled nations.

Shadow glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "Metal Sonic?" He asked, voice a heavy deadpan.

"Eeeh, Eggman tried to make a robot copy of me, didn't work out, met Amy." Sonic homing attacked a couple of eggbots that had appeared in their sights. "Also, looks like you were right! They're throwing eggbots at us." Sonic nodded ahead to where he could still see the two skunks. They were tossing compact eggpawns at them, where they unrolled and tried to smash the hedgehog duo.

One of the compacted eggpawns flew over Shadow's head, where it was caught in a teal aura and shot back at the people throwing them. It looked like Silver had finally caught up.

The white hedgehog looked a little tired and annoyed. "Guys, you couldn't've waited for me?" He asked. "Also, Amy, Cream, and Big are right behind us. They're just...not as fast." Well, duh, Sonic thought, they weren't the fastest hedgehog alive.

"Yeah, got it!" Sonic rammed into something, distracted by looking back at Silver. Rolling back onto his feet, he looked up at a reinforced eggpawn--one similar to the eggbot that they had run into the HEXAeco power plant. He grimaced but grinned as he thought, _Well, this time I won't have to worry about it smashing any roads or floors, huh?_

Shadow snirked at him and shot a chaos spear at the leg of the eggbot, the same spot that Sonic had collided into it. Did he. Did he actually damage the leg just from running into it? Yeah, okay, he didn't have that hard of head, did he?

Silver seemed to be following the previous tactics with the other eggbot, which Sonic was actually grateful for. He really did not want to be crushed by that spiked hammer. Shadow continued to attack that one spot on the leg and Sonic, well. He was looking for some sort of weak point. Probably on the head, but unless he bounced around, there was no way he was going to reach the head.

And then Amy barreled out of the darkness and slammed her own hammer right into its legs.

The eggbot creaked and sputtered as it fell to the side. Amy spun her hammer with a smirk and balanced it on her shoulder. "You three keep going after those two skunks!" She called. "We'll take care of this thing!!"

Sonic gave her a thumbs up. "Alright, see ya later Ames!" Silver faltered for a couple of moments before he followed Sonic and Shadow's path towards what was commonly called BINGO Highway.

* * *

"Well, we lost them." Sonic groaned as he stared across the three story large pinball boards. "Any ideas on what to do now?"

Shadow scowled at him and crossed his arms as he turned his scowl to the pinball boards. "....They're likely in there. Their chaos signatures are muted, with all the others they're around, but I can tell that much."

Sonic slowly turned to look at him, baffled. "You can tell where they are?? I thought--how can you do that without something to track it?" _Like what Tails had?_

The dark hedgehog pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "Your guardian--Knuckles, wasn't it?--can likely do the same. He did seem proficient in chaos energy use, with how he used the Master Emerald to stop the Chaos Emeralds flow, back on the ARK."

Wait, Knuckles? That...actually made sense, once he thought about it. It definitely would explain how Knuckles could find them so easily when they first met on Angel Island. Wait. "'My' Guardian? He's not--We're friends, Shadow."

"I didn't imply otherwise." Shadow shot him a look that made Sonic paused. It seemed to be a normal look from him but it was only when Sonic looked closely that he saw the faint confusion in Shadow's eyes. Haaa, he supposed that Shadow hadn’t meant to imply that Knuckles was his--partner so to speak.

That thought made him flush and he put his hands on his hips, eager to forget this even happened. "S-so! Let's go after them then! Do you know which way we should go?"

Shadow shook his head, staring at the bright neon lights. "I do not. However...Silver. Where do you live, again, in your dimension?" He turned to Silver, the green neon lights coloring his red and black fur strangely.

"Oh, me?" Silver jumped at being addressed. "Uh--I think I actually live in the alternate version of this place--that is, Grand Metropolis. Not Casino Park." He paused and stepped forward. "Which way can you sense them, Shadow?"

He tilted his head at Silver before pointing to the west. "They're that way," Shadow said.

Sonic tapped his foot. "Isn't that...the way to...What was it called...?" Ugh, he'd only been here once, but he was sure he'd been on that highway in that direction once with Tails. But what was it called?

"BINGO Highway." Silver shrugged. "At least that's what it's called back home. I don't know here, but that way will definitely lead us there."

BINGO Highway did seem familiar and--wait, didn't that highway lead out of the Metropolis? "That sounds right." Sonic chirped, his foot tapping faster now. "But that highway leads out of the city--Which means those two are trying to get out."

Shadow walked towards the pinball boards. "Then, we have to catch up," He said as he dropped a couple of rings into the entry cannon. The cannon shot him off and both Sonic and Silver followed his example.

It'd been awhile since he'd fallen into a zone, city or no, like this one. Station Square's closest zone to it was that casino hall that Knuckles had investigated a year ago, before the Flood. Which meant it probably wasn't there anymore, as the only place Sonic was sure was in the same place was Twinkle Park.

(And he only knew that because Amy kept wanting to go on dates there, despite him trying to turn her down.)

Either way, he could hear and feel his quills hitting the number bouncers on the boards. Once they get to the end of the boards at BINGO highway, they could pick up their ring count--If they didn't fall off them. Which, uh, they couldn't afford. Not because they didn't have rings, but because of time.

He jerked up and caught onto a platform. There wasn't a way to the next board here but he took the chance to look up and down the board to try and spy the actual exit. There were parts of the board he couldn't see properly so he cupped his hands around his mouth and called Silver's name until the hedgehog appeared.

"Can you see the exit?" Sonic called as Silver floated up. The younger hedgehog looked up and around the board before he pointed up towards the farthest corner. Sonic grinned and gave him a thumbs up. "Awesome. Go let Shadow know, okay?"

Sonic plunged down into the board once more and tried to maneuver up towards the exit. He didn't really know what to expect when he did hit it--but it might just end up being a tunnel. They weren't so bad, but it was harder to rev up for speed when you're caught in a tunnel only slightly bigger than you.

He had way too much experience with that, for his own comfort.

When he did get onto the platform for the exit he paused and eyeballed the door. Sonic poked at it until it chirped and opened up for him. He had no idea if he had done anything or what, but even if it was a trap. Sonic loved to spring traps, after all.

Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted Silver and Shadow rapidly catching up and so Sonic took the plunge. They'd catch up: If he can trust Knuckles and Tails to keep up, that he has to trust Silver and Shadow to keep up to. Which wasn't too hard, considering they'd done so for the past couple days.

Sonic winced as he felt his quills slam into the paddles of the new board and was flung back up the board to bounce around like a wild pinball. Woof, he thought, this was a little harder on him than actual fighting eggpawns. Which was weird, because one would think with all the battles he'd been through, just a couple of pinball paddles would mean nothing.

But naw, it hurt a bit. Oh well, he wasn't going to break any bones, so he'd be fine. High pain tolerance was the _best_.

Something whizzed past his ears and Sonic swore he heard Shadow cursing as that something passed. He grinned to himself because he wouldn't be surprised if that was Shadow--he seemed like the type to swear like that. Kinda weird he was doing so with just a pinball board, though.

It continued on like this until, finally, they hit the final board and the trio of hedgehogs met up again on the platform above the board. "Yo." Sonic waved. "You two having fun?"

"I hate all of this," Shadow said flatly as Silver rubbed his arms with a grimace. "Why did we have to go through the boards to get to Rough and Tumble again?"

Sonic paused and slowly turned to look at Shadow with a broad smile. "Rough and Tumble?," He said, trying not to laugh, "Are you serious?"

Shadow narrowed his eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?" Silver edged away from them both.

"I--Did they like, do a little monologue before you menaced them? Did they do a song and dance? Please, Shadow, tell me. I gotta know." Sonic bounced on his heels, eager.

The dark hedgehog snorted and smirked. "Perhaps I'll tell you--after we catch them." Sonic mock whined as Shadow leapt down towards the board. He followed suit, leaving Silver behind on the platform.

This last board was a pain because--well, apparently, the only way to get to BINGO Highway from here was through the sealed shut doors. Sonic snorted: There was no way they could stop him from getting through. After all, if Eggman couldn't keep him stuck, then some sealed doors made by people who didn't have any experience with him weren't gonna hold up.

Shadow and Silver seemed to catch on with Sonic's plan after his second spin dash. Silver's spin dashes weren't as strong as his or Shadow's, but when he grabbed them and used them as weapons? Yeah, way more damage than if it was just their individual spin dashes. Something about the force behind a super-fast spin dash and a telekinetic throwing said spin dasher just spelled destruction.

Which was how Sonic tore through the doors, eventually, and face planted right in front of a red star ring. Unseen by Shadow and Silver, who both landed at Sonic's feet, Sonic's expression lit up like the sun and he snatched the red star ring. "Red star ring, red star ring!" Sonic cheered, absorbing it as he did the other two from the islands.

Silver stepped up next to him as Sonic scrambled to his feet, peering out towards the highway just beyond their sights. "Casino Park really does go all out in their theming." He mused aloud. "It's a little crazy...Er, Sonic? Why’re you chanting Red Star ring?"

Sonic paused and looked Silver in the eye. "Red Star Rings are super important, because how else will we get to all the chaos emeralds??"

"...Sonic, I supposedly collected two of the chaos emeralds for Eggman." Shadow spoke up, his voice flat. "And I know I have never seen one of those...Red Star Rings before."

The blue speedster rolled his eyes towards the sky. "Shadow, that's cause they go to the special zones to recharge! Then they come back to our world afterwards--it'd been like, a whole year since they'd been used, when ARK happened." He paused. "...Are we just gonna call that whole thing ARK because that'd just be faster."

Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose while Silver smiled wryly. "And what about the one I supposedly managed to hold onto?"

Sonic shrugged. "Sometimes they stick around after I go super; depends on what I'm doing. And you did crash and cause all those chaos shards to form: It might've absorbed a bunch of energy from that crash. Tails probably knows why."

Before Shadow could question Sonic further, Silver suddenly jerked forward, pointing. "It’s the skunks!" He snapped out and the other two hedgehogs stopped and looked at the duo that were jumping down the slope of BINGO Highway.

"Alright!" Sonic grinned, rushing forward. "Let's goooo, before they get away again!"

* * *

"Bingoooo!," Sonic said, his voice almost lost on the wind. Above their heads, rings rained down and the trio picked them up as they slid past.

Silver flailed as he was cast into the air. "This is the woooooooorst!" He screeched, barely curling up in time to protect his soft parts from his landing. Somewhere up ahead, Shadow was skating along, instead of curled and sliding.

Probably because he was anxious to catch up to the two skunks that were just meters ahead of them. How they managed to keep up the space between them, Sonic didn't know. All he knew was that this was super fun and was more than worth the chaos they'd had to deal with to get to this point.

(Read: Those dang pinball boards.)

Of course, Shadow probably disagreed with how annoyed he looked. Most likely because he'd almost caught them before they'd escaped the three of them and Amy's team. Ah well, Sonic could do something to cheer him up when they picked up their meals after catching these two and finding out what they knew.

Sonic rolled around and hit another number that caused another bingo alarm to go off, rings raining down on them. It caused a quick speed post and Sonic uncurled and kicked off down the highway to catch up to Shadow. "Yo, Shadow!" He called as he caught up to the dark hedgehog. "Think you could throw a chaos spear to slow them down?

"If I could, I would've already done it." He shot back, glancing over his shoulder at Silver, who had abandoned the curled up roll to use his telekinesis. Good to know he was that comfortable with it already: Sonic wondered if it wasn't a Chaos induced thing. Like how Shadow could throw chaos spears; Maybe Silver was just how he used chaos?

...He'd ask Tails. Maybe he could help the hedgehog out, before they send him off back home. Especially if they don't have a lot of chaos energy back in Silver's dimension.

Ah, right, getting distracted again, he thought. Sonic needed to focus on their current task, dang it. He kicked through the last number on the board and grinned as they were once more awarded with a shower of rings. "Think we can hit them from here, with that boost?" Sonic wondered.

Shadow made a noise that was either a dismissal or an acknowledgement and moved further forward. Silver was on their heels and Sonic pulled forward just enough--to try and homing attack.

"Rough!" One of the duo cried out in anger. "You--Rough, come on, we're almost there!"

Almost--? Sonic squinted through the neon lights to see a circular betting board. Sonic made a face: He's pretty sure that's _not_ supposed to be there. Either way, 'Rough' managed to roll away from him just before Sonic or Shadow could grab them.

Silver suddenly made a noise as he sped past Sonic. "I'm so dumb!" He cried, raising his hands. "Telekinesis--Why didn't I just grab them!?"

Oh. Oh!! That's. An obvious solution Sonic did not think of. Judging by the face Shadow was making, he hadn't either. In fairness, he thought to himself, I've never dealt with telekinesis before so.

Using his telekinesis, Silver caught the two skunks before they could fly off the make shift platform at the 'end' of the highway. "We've got you." Shadow hissed as he slowed to a stop by the trapped skunks. "Now tell us--Where. Is. Eggman?"

"W-We're Rough and Tumble, we ain't telling you anything!" The smaller of the two snapped.

Sonic stifled his laughter. "R-Rough and Tumble huh?," He said, "You know what? I wanna hear it--What's your two's song and dance?"

"Sonic..." Shadow hissed.

The blue hedgehog waved him off. "Come on, let's have a little bit of fun, okay? So." He grinned at the skunk duo. "Tell me about yourselves! I'm Sonic. You two are...?"

The two skunks straightened as best they could in Silver's grip and the larger of the two spoke up. "You lookin' to scrap?"

"Then get ready to crumble!" The smaller cheered.

"Brace yourselves!" The larger's gaze glinted as he spotted something behind the three hedgehogs.

They both grinned as something exploded at the trio's feet, breaking Silver's concentration. "Rough and Tumble!" They cried as they jumped and landed on Eggman's eggmobile. Shadow cursed and Sonic winced: Whoops. At least Sonic got to see that stuff Shadow had mentioned.

Sonic cleared his throat. "Well. That happened!" He chirped as a set of robots began to land onto the betting table. They were effectively blocked from continuing, as the skunk duo scooped handfuls of more eggbots and eggpawns to toss at them

Shadow gave him a flat look before he stepped to the edge of their shaking platform. "I am going to break that robot and get the information from Eggman." He tilted his head at Sonic. "Or are you just going to sit here and watch?"

"No way!" Sonic bounced up next to him, with Silver just tiredly following on their heels. "Let's smash it and then find out what we can from Eggy." If it wasn't another fake, anyway.

A trio of hedgehogs--what a way to make Eggman extra angry. Before now, Eggman had only been subjected to a pair of hedgehogs, since Mobius. The fake at the beaches hadn’t responded to them being a trio but--well, it was a fake.

Sonic made a face as he collided with one of the basic eggpawns. "Seriously, Eggman? Just some lowbrow minions? Chasing Rough and Tumble over there was way more trouble!"

The two skunks winced as Eggman roared. "Silence, Hedgehog!" He pointed down at him. "I have no need to waste my stronger projects on you."

"I beg to differ!" Sonic chirped as he kicked a robot off the edge. "Seriously, your stuff just falls apart at the lightest touch these days: Even a 'stronger project' would probably fall after a couple of my homing attacks or spin dashes!"

Oh boy, looked like that made him roaring mad. He grinned as a hammer wielding robot seemed to peel itself from the floor. "Sonic!" Silver chided as he caught the hammer's swing with his power. "Stop egging him on!"

Sonic snickered. "Egging him on?" Silver groaned and kicked his foot as Shadow sped past and into the hammer bot's leg joints. Making it fall was the best way to beat it, as the head was the weakest point. Granted, it would be nice to have Amy's hammer to make quick work of those legs...

Maybe he should've waited on those three.

Well, too late now!, he thought as he shot a homing attack against the back of the bot's legs, Too late to wait, and too late for regrets. Keep moving and running--He can regret when he stopped.

Shrugging his shoulders, Sonic watched as Shadow's chaos spear cut through the joint and the giant hammer wielder fell over. Silver ripped the hammer from the bot's hands and threw it at Eggman while Sonic homing attacked the bot's head, crushing it beneath his sharp quills.

He whistled as Eggman's eggmobile flailed midair to dodge Silver's attacks, causing the two skunks to lose their balance and fall. Eggman scoffed and raised his mobile up and away. "Next time, Sonic. Next time, I will surely crush you and your spiny little rodent friends!"

"Hedgehogs aren't rodents, Eggbutt!" Sonic called after him. "We're insectivores! And they're quills not spines--"

Silver cleared his throat. "Sonic? He's gone." Sonic paused and then grinned at him wryly as the white hedgehog sighed. "By the way...I caught them." The two hedgehogs turned to look at the teal tinted skunk duo. Shadow was already hovering over them menacingly, his red eyes glinting brightly somehow against the neon lights around them.

"Hello." He hissed as Silver and Sonic came closer. "Now then, how about you two spill your guts--or I might spill them for you."

Sonic rolled his eyes at Shadow's dark threats: For all that he threatened that, there was no way Sonic would let him just do that. "Yo, Shadow, dial back the darkness there." He tilted his head at the skunks. "`Course, if they end up in a prison cell somewhere because they're known Eggman conspirators...Whoops, I guess."

The smaller of the two skunks made a face. "Yeah, okay, we're not going to jail here in Grand Metropolis. Its--deep in Frog Forest, okay? Now let us go--"

Silver dropped them and the two skunks immediately scurried off, the larger of the two picking up the smaller so that they covered more ground. Sonic shook his head with a wry grin as he heard them telling something baout 'squads' and 'infinite'. "Well, they're taken care of. How about we get in contact with Tails while we wait for Amy's team to catch up?"

"...Fine." Shadow shrugged as he stepped over to the side. Eh, normally Sonic would be pushing for Shadow to stay with them but--well, if it was Knuckles, he would let him have some time alone. Sonic had a feeling that they shared that trait of wanting to be alone, sometimes.

Eh. He'd let him have it, even if he didn't really get wanting to be alone like that. Switching on the communicator, he waited for Tails to respond to his signal. When he did, Sonic grinned at his younger brother. "Did you and Knuckles find anything in that base?"

Tails grinned. "Yeah, got a ping on an active Eggman base!" He shuffled through some papers on his desk to get to his computer mouse before he said, "It's in Rail Canyon, codenamed Bullet Station. ...Sonic, why are you giving me that look?"

"We found a couple of skunks that knew something about an Egg Base, too. They said it was deep inside Frog Forest." Sonic rubbed his nose with a wry grin. "I guess they might've lied." Though, why one would want to anger Shadow, Sonic had no idea.

His little brother frowned in thought. "You know, there might be one in both. We could split up again--I was just talking with Knuckles about having Knuckles meet up with you three. But it might be better for him to go to Bullet Station and you three to Frog Forest..."

Sonic clicked his tongue. "You sure that's a good idea? Frog Forest sounds like it'd be pretty easy for Knuckles to handle on his own: Bullet Station, though..."

"Explorers go missing in Frog Forest all the time, Sonic." Tails sighed. "You three’ll have an easier time than Knuckles on his own."

He scratched his quills. "If you say so, bro. I know where Frog Forest is, but you'll probably have to tell Shadow the coordinates, though." At least, that's what they'd had to do to get to Grand Metropolis via Chaos Control.

Tails agreed and he moved over to Shadow's side, holding out the communicator. Shadow rolled his eyes at him before taking it and Sonic back off, leaving the two alone. Silver was also off to the side, peering off into the distance with a hand shadowing his eyes.

"Yo, Silver!" Sonic bounced up to his side. "You doing okay?"

Silver started. "Eh...Yeah, I am. Just a little tired from all the fighting...Speaking of, are we going to eat soon? I'm also a little hungry, so..." He flushed, as if being hungry was a shameful thing to be. Weird, Sonic thought. Eh, he'd talk with Silver before he left, once they got the chaos emeralds or Tails managed to figure out how to be sure that the door would connect to Silver's home world.

He laughed a bit, though. "Eh, we can rest when we eat--which'll be soon, really. Shadow just needs to get the coordinates for the forest from Tails." Sonic put his hands on his hips as he stared off towards the skyscraper and neon skyline.

"And wait for Amy, Cream, and Big, right?" Silver asked.

Well, yeah, Sonic thought. Even if they were splitting up from here, Sonic figured he should still make sure they were alright, tangling with Eggman's bots as they had. Amy, he trusted to be alright, but...Cream was a kid and Sonic didn't know how strong Big was.

Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear, as something pink and red appeared on the horizon, whizzing down towards them. Sonic forced a grin as he waved towards the speeding bullet of a girl. "Hey, Ames--!"

A bone crushing hug and Sonic grimaced: This was exactly what he didn't want to happen, when they first grouped up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what do you mean I can't use characters from the non-game media.
> 
> also gonna be posting the deleted scenes+extra stories collection soon. it'll be called extra stage: true speed


	5. marshy jungle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d

Sonic sneezed and rubbed his nose with a wry grin. "Man, it's really musty in this forest."

"Allergic to something?" Shadow asked in a deadpan as he stepped up next to him, one hand hiding the chaos emerald in his quills. He didn't seem too happy about the place--and Sonic wondered if Shadow could remember something from Prison Island. From their brief encounter there and the resulting explosion, Sonic was pretty sure that Shadow hated the place.

Frog Forest was a little like the jungle on that island.

Silver was the only one of them that didn't seem to be too hung up on things--which was off, because he usually was off the walls with anxiety. Right now, though, he was excitedly peering into the underbrush and through the trees around them. It was like the hedgehog had suddenly forgotten all of his problems out of nowhere.

“Nah.” He waved him off before lowering his voice. "You should be more concerned about Silver, you know. I never thought I'd say this, but he's less anxious than earlier. And man is it weird that I'm worried about that." Then again he'd be concerned if Tails suddenly decided he didn't want to invent things anymore. The chances of that were slim to none.

Shadow glanced back at Silver before shrugging vaguely. "He seems perfectly fine to me. I'll be more concerned if he tries to drop something on me, however."

Stifling a snort, Sonic shrugged back at him. "If you say so. Now--how about we pick up the pace and head on in?" He grinned at Silver as he jolted to attention and jogged to keep up with them as both Sonic and Shadow began picking up their pace from a light walk to a jog.

The forest's trees were massive compared to the trees one could find in Mystic Ruins, which was a borderline jungle. Heck, Frog Forest definitely seemed more like a full out jungle than Mystic Ruins' jungle. He grinned to himself as they dashed across one of the ancient speed ramps littering the jungle.

They weren't too dissimilar to the ramps you could see on Angel Island: Sonic wondered if he should bring it up to Knuckles, next time they met. Knuckles always did like to hear about any possible leads on his people.

Angel Island's ruins might be well preserved but they alone didn't have much to tell Knuckles.

Sonic cartwheeled through the air as they crossed a speed ramp over the final gap into the interior of the forest. They were finally in uncharted territory and Sonic was excited. It'd been a long time since he'd explored something like this, back when he first met Knuckles with Tails.

Silver seemed to be thinking that it was also exciting instead of worrying--which was nice. Out of three of them, Silver worried the most and Sonic did think that worrying like that was likely to give him a heart attack out of stress. Though, maybe excitement wasn't the best way to counteract worry...

A croak thundered through the forest and Sonic skidded to a stop. He cast a look around him, trying to spot the source of the croak when a big water drop hit him square between the eyes. "Woah!" He cried, rubbing at his now wet fur. "Is it--Is it raining??"

"...Did that croak make it rain?" Silver wondered, looking skeptical and confused by the sudden rain fall: It had been bright and sunny just a second ago.

Shadow grumbled. "It would hardly be the strangest thing to happen yet."

Sonic laughed, pained. "Yeah, fighting a lizard attached to space colony while said space colony is failing to Gaia is definitely stranger than a frog croak making it run." He paused, peering at the paths ahead of them. They'd probably be fine running across, but if it got any worse they might start having problems.

It was always a toss-up, running in the rain. At least the chances of the jungle being flooded was unlikely: If frogs could just make it rain whenever, the jungle probably had deep channels in it to help channel the water away before it flooded.

Of course, none of that would help Sonic any if he managed to fall in.

He grinned to himself before he spotted something out of the corner of his eyes: Something massive and green. Sonic immediately put on the brakes, skidding a couple more feet before stopping inches away from a leaping frog. A massive frog that, if Sonic hadn't stopped when he had, probably would've crushed him.

It let out a loud croak at him and leapt away. Above his head, the clouds cleared and the rain eased away. "I suppose that confirms that it’s the frogs," Shadow said next to him, startling Sonic.

"Yeesh, Shadow! You startled me." Sonic brought hand to his chest as Silver sidled up behind Shadow. "And yeah, I guess it does! But that means we have absolutely no idea when the rain will come back." Which was pretty dangerous, from where Sonic was standing. Plus, with those shades of green, you probably wouldn’t notice the frog unless you were right in front of it. And apparently being near it made it croak.

Or at least want to croak, anyway.

"That's probably why people keep getting lost here: The rains must take them by surprise and get them swept away." Silver murmured, peering at the small trenches Sonic had only just noticed. "It seems like a good place to have a secret base."

Sonic grinned at that. "Which means we're on the right track! Now if only we could call Tails from in here..." Tails would've liked to know about all this but his brother was currently far from their reach communicator wise. And as much as Sonic would like to let him know, they had bigger fish to fry.

He turned towards the deeper parts of the jungle. "Well, either way, let's track down Eggman's base and maybe find out about those two from earlier!"

* * *

'Get me outta here!!' Sonic wanted to scream to Silver and Shadow. Unfortunately, he really couldn't because his head and upper torso were currently in a frog's mouth. The frog's tongue was way to close to his face for his comfort and he stiffened up his quills to try and get the frog to let him go.

Between the hands that grabbed his ankles and his stiff quills, the frog finally let go of Sonic's head, croaking and bouncing away. Sonic slumped to the ground, shuddering as the frog's gross salvia dripped off him and joined the steady rain that picked up from the croak.

Silver knelt down next to him. "Did you get it?" He asked, referring to the red star ring that they had spotted the frog about to swallow.

He gave the white hedgehog a single thumbs up as he held up the red star ring with his other hand. "Got it," He said, "But I really do not want to repeat that experience: Frog mouths are gross."

"You are the one who dived in." Shadow snorted as he stepped up, his knee bumped Sonic's elbow.

Said hedgehog shot him a look that clearly said 'too slow!'. Probably because he felt that trying to talk about a plan would've led to them losing the red star ring.

Silver sighed. "Okay, no arguing!" He crossed his arms in a x. "How do we use these, anyway? I know you said they get us to the special zones for the emeralds, but...Well, that doesn't really tell us how."

Grinning, Sonic pushed himself to his feet. He patted the dust from his hands before he held out his hand, the other red star rings flashing into existence on the palm of his hand. "You just put a little energy into it and..." The four red star rings glowed and spun away from his hands, forming a circle. A portal opened up and Sonic said, "A portal pops up! You two ready?"

The other two hedgehogs exchanged looks and Shadow grudgingly said, "You're the expert here. Lead the way."

Sonic gave him a thumbs up before diving into the portal. It was like floating through space again, as he felt weightless and bodiless. Then his feet hit the bottom of a pipe. A strange liquid floated just outside and around the pipe and ahead of him, just feet away was the chaos emerald. Sonic heard Shadow and Silver land behind him and Sonic gave them both a thumbs up.

"We gotta catch the emerald, before it gets away!" He called over his shoulder before he kicked off the ground and zoomed down the pipe towards the emerald. As if sensing his approach, the emerald zipped off ahead of him.

As he ran towards the emerald, small balloon like orbs popped up. Sonic let himself skim one and felt his speed kick up a notch. Oh, nice! A ring boost without the rings. Sonic did his best to grab as many as he could as he raced towards the emerald.

That's when the spiked cannonballs appeared.

Sonic almost ran right into one and he kicked over it. Yeesh, were they trying to kill him? If they were, they'd have to do better than a row of spiked stuff. Eggman had out grown mere spikes like those years ago.

It was almost monotonous, if it wasn't for the fact that he loved to run. Getting an emerald just or running was a lot more fun for him than all those puzzles he had to do in the past.

Speaking of getting an emerald, they'd caught up to it. The green trail was just above their heads and Sonic decided to take the chance to leap up and grab the emerald from the air. It pulled him along for a moment before his feet hit the ground again and he skidded to a stop.

Silver stopped above his head and Shadow slowed next to them both. "Got it!" Sonic cheered, holding it aloft. The portal appeared before him and he gave the other two hedgehogs a thumbs up. "Time to head out."

"Later." Shadow deadpanned as he jumped through it. Silver followed him, still glowing teal, and Sonic left last. The portal closed on his back and Sonic shook his quills out: It didn't seem like he'd lost any when the portal closed.

Above him and Shadow, Silver hovered. "That was a special zone? It was...kind of strange."

Sonic laughed and ruffled his quills. "That was actually pretty straight forward for a special zone. Usually it’s on small planet and I have to collect blue spheres, or chase a weird UFO--"

"UFO." Shadow deadpanned, giving Sonic a look over his shoulder, like he didn't believe him.

He shrugged. "It's not the weirdest thing I've dealt with--I figure I should just go with the flow, these days." Sonic used to question things a lot more when he was younger, but he kind of left that up to Tails these days. It stressed them both out less, when he did that.

* * *

Sonic rubbed the sludge off his face. This place was less of a jungle and more of marsh, with the many patches of deep water and sludgy mud all over. It made for really bad running conditions.

Both Shadow and Silver were having an easier time than him, considering the former's air skates and the latter's telekinesis. It would be a lie to say he wasn't a little jealous of their ease but you win some and lose some. In this case, Sonic just was on the losing side.

(Thank Chaos that it was only small things like that, that he lost with.)

Sonic shook what was left of the sludge off his quills and waved to Silver, who was peering through the trees. "Hey, Silver!" He called. "Do you see a clear way through these marshes? Or any Eggman buildings?"

The white hedgehog paused and lowered himself just above the ground. "I didn't see any clear paths--but I did see some strange frogs up ahead. They aren't green like the frogs we ran into before though: they're like a purple-black color." Sonic frowned at that. Purple-black color, huh? He wondered why that was significant.

"I'm going to approach one." Shadow declared as he passed them by. Sonic squawked as Shadow leapt up to one of the frogs Silver had pointed out through the bushes and trees. Sonic jogged after him and Silver cringed as he accidentally spat up some sludge onto him.

Whoops. "Sorry, Silver!" Sonic waved to him with a light wince.

Silver sighed and hung his head before following after the other two hedgehogs. Which might not've been the best idea as right after, the dark frog croaked loudly and the plant life seemed to decay and rot away around them, with Sonic balanced on a fallen tree truck.

He cursed an 'oh nuts!' as he fell on his behind and the dark frog bounced away from their sight. Silver stopped by him and kneeled down next to Sonic. "You doing okay?" He teased.

"I'm fine." Sonic puffed and stood up, patting his knees. "Didn't expect that though! Yeesh, these frogs have as many powers as mobians do, huh?"

Silver floated above them, peering ahead of them. "Looks like there's an opening further into the jungle. I guess we need to make those frogs croak." He paused and grinned down at Sonic. "Maybe try not to fall into the sludge again?"

He snorted and bounced along the new dry path that had been revealed from the croak. "Don't worry about me, Silver! If we're getting in deeper, we'll run into some of old Eggy's eggbots." If they hadn't rusted to heck and back.

Of course, minutes into the deepest circle of the jungle, they run right into said eggbots. They weren't as rusty as Sonic thought they would be which meant one of two things: They had some sort of coating that protected them from rust or they might be brand new.

If they were brand new, it just meant that there was definitely an active Eggman base around here. Sonic grinned as he sprinted ahead and spin dashed into the first two nearest them. Shadow threw a couple of chaos spears around Sonic and spin dashed any bots that straggled away from the group they'd caught up to.

Silver's moves were mostly to shred the bots with the remains of their fellows. Sonic winced as a couple of those metal shards whizzed past his ear, impacting into the 'heads' of the eggbots. It did not look pleasant.

Shaking his head, Sonic bounced off a tree and homing attacked a couple of the flying eggsaucers that had followed after the patrol. Shadow took out the other and the trio of hedgehogs stood in a circle of broken bots and metal shards. They still weren't completely in sync, the three of them, but they were doing better than they had in the seaside islands.

He puffed and crossed his arms. "Jeez, these were pretty easy. Eggman must've been really counting on the forest and jungle to keep his base safe." Sonic wondered how Eggman had gotten the supplies to the base to even build these bots. Sure, he'd had teleporters in other bases but those cost a lot to make: Would he really build one for a base as remote as this?

...Yeah, he would, who was Sonic kidding.

"Let's keep going." Sonic eventually decided. "I guess we'll have to find another of those dark frogs again, before we can make it to the base."

The run forward was slightly easier than the marsh trek earlier. Partially because the worst of the marsh was behind them as they entered the jungle's tree thickets. The other reason was the dark frogs: their croaks broke down trees and formed bridges. It was likely unintentional but Sonic wasn't going to complain about it.

Sonic found himself being picked up by Silver to get to unreachable cliffs and watching Shadow break through boulders and barriers that would've left Knuckles with a challenging glint in his eyes. It was all still a little unfamiliar but Sonic was getting used to it: By the time they reached Eggman, they'd probably be totally in sync and Sonic wouldn't be thrown by some weird thing one of the others did.

Of course, thinking about reaching Eggman made him remember Metal Sonic--who the doctor had seemingly brought back--and Amy. Why, again, would Eggman want to kidnap a chao? There were hundreds of chao gardens across Gaia, quite a lot of them unattended.

Why would he choose the one chao that definitely had an owner looking out for it?

The obvious answer was to get Sonic's attention. It wouldn't be the first time Eggman had done something like that, just to get Sonic's attention. But it sounded like Chocola had been kidnapped after Sonic had grabbed Shadow and Silver from his base: Eggman already had his attention. So why?

Sonic groaned internally. He'd just pose the question to Tails, when they were out of the jungle and back into an area the radio could reach Tails. Maybe Tails would have some sort of answer.

He paused and skidded to a stop by a strange tree. Weird sponge branches stuck out from it and Sonic scrunched up his nose. Sonic rolled his eyes and bounced up to the first of them. He turned and held out his hand to Shadow. "Come on, I'll pull you up."

Shadow stared at his hand and then up his face before sighing and taking Sonic's hand. Sonic grinned at him and pulled Shadow up next to him. "Thanks." Shadow muttered before he hefted himself up onto the next branch above them.

Sonic couldn't help his stupid grin: Was Shadow actually opening up to them? Or him, at least?

Ha. Sonic pumped his fist in the air before bouncing after Shadow. The two of them helped each other up onto the cliff edge. When they got up to the cliff edge, Sonic decided to poke around before he finally spotted a green tower poking through the jungle trees. Eggman's base, he realized.

Grinning, he turned to Shadow and Silver only to see Silver hesitantly staring at the cliff that edged the other side of the weird plateau they'd come out on. No wait, not staring at the cliff, but at something at the top...

"...What are you doing?" Shadow finally asked, before Sonic could think to ask.

Silver flailed for a moment before he pointed up to the next cliff. "Why are there two of you, Shadow?"

Sonic flinched as he stared at the dark hedgehog standing at the top of the cliff. The other hedgehog looked like Shadow, true enough, but he definitely wasn't. The Shadow with them was--because he was the one who had been missing a bracelet.

(What if Eggman just made another pair and switched them? Sonic ignored the thought.)

Next to him, he could feel Shadow tense and close up to him and Silver, which just made him frustrated. Of course, he finally got Shadow to start opening up to them properly and then something like this comes along and makes him shut up again. Oooh, that made Sonic frustrated.

"So, who're you?" Sonic chirped, shoving his frustration away for now. "Because, man, I never knew there could be two handsome faces like that!"

Silver choked at Sonic's comment. Besides him, Shadow gave him a weird look. _What_ , Sonic thought, _I can't think Shadow is actually kind of handsome?_ Jeez. It wasn't the first time he'd thought of another mobian as handsome: He'd called Knuckles handsome once, partially to make the echidna fluster but also because he actually did think that.

Ah, well. Sonic internally let it go.

"My face should be the only one around here." The other Shadow drawled, briefly flicking his quills. "Even if that one shares my face, I doubt he shares my skills."

Behind him, Rouge was glancing back and forth between the two Shadows, looking almost as confused as Silver did. Sonic kept himself smiling as he said, "I dunno about that--He's as skilled as I remember him to be." He pretended he didn't see Shadow's sharp look.

The other Shadow hmphed. "Maybe we should test that claim?" He mocked.

Sonic bared his teeth in a smile. "I dunno, do you two feel up to a fight?" He glanced at the other two hedgehogs at his side. Shadow shrugged and Silver gave him a weak thumbs up. Sonic turned his smile back on the other Shadow. "Alright, let's go."

The large eggbot behind the other Shadow and Rouge clacked its fingers together. "Declaration: I am ready to take care of the mouthy hedgehog!" Wow, rude, Sonic thought.

Rouge sighed. "Alright fine. Let's do this." She leapt into the air and drifted down to the plateau, the other Shadow and the eggbot following them. Silver pulled on Sonic and Shadow and pulled up into the air as the other trio attacked as soon as their feet hit the ground.

Other Shadow seemed keen on latching into a fight with Shadow--Which sort of made sense, as Sonic would want to go after Metal Sonic if he saw him. He didn't get a chance to think more about that as the eggbot swung its massive claws down on him.

"Guess you're my dance partner!" He chirped as he landed on the eggbot's arm. Looked like an E-series--or at least a heavily modified e-series.

The eggbot swatted at him again with its other heavily claws arm. "Clarification: I do not dance, annoying hedgehog."

Sonic burst out laughing as he landed. "What, not even a pirouette? I'm hurt. Guess I'll just have to get over it, though." He revved up and spun at the bot, only to be caught in its claws. Sonic grimaced as he felt the tips dig between his quills. Nuts, that didn't go well.

He wriggled until he managed to free himself, side stepping back and to the left away from the bot. "Determined Introduction: I am Omega, and you shall lay dead at my feet, just as Eggman will." The eggbot, now identified as Omega, swung its claws down and hit the ground, which shook slightly beneath the weight and impact.

"Hey now, what'd I do to earn a death sentence?" Sonic jeered, pressing a hand to his chest to feigned offence. Omega didn't reply as it swung its claws towards his head again, clearly intending to try and take his head off.

Bouncing away, Sonic peered over at his friends. Silver seemed to be doing okay enough with Rouge--at least enough that he didn't seem to need help. Shadow was evenly matched with Other Shadow, which made Sonic wonder, though not for long as Omega came for him for a second time.

Omega spoke as it opened up a gun turret in its arm. "Condemnation: You earned the death sentence for standing in our way."

Standing in their way? For what? Unless they really did intend to kill Eggman which...fair, Sonic could understand but he definitely wasn't going to allow. That was one thing he couldn't abide by: Killing a sentient being. He'd already come too close with the Biolizard; Without Tails' research and assurance than the Biolizard wasn't anymore sentient that the jungle frogs, Sonic might've...

Well, that was neither here nor there.

Sonic kicked off Omega's arms and landed on its head. "Dude, I'm all for putting Eggy in jail--but not the death you seem to want to give him." Omega swung around, trying to get Sonic off his head.

"Frustrated Condemnation: Then you will still be killed." Oh what, you weren't going to if I didn't let you kill Eggman? Sonic puffed as he dug his fingers into the curve of his head. Before he could pull the bot's head off, Rouge was kicking him off of Omega.

Off to his left, Other Shadow had backed off to the cliff side overlooking the green coated base. His Shadow was rubbing a split lip, the blood coloring Shadow's dark tan fur. Silver was rubbing his head, blood stark against his white fur.

He pushed himself off the ground and rubbed his own mouth as he watched their three opponents jump down the cliff. "Hey! You two feeling up to following after them?" Silver and Shadow both nodded, the latter's expression looking as mutely furious as Shadow probably ever let himself look.

Silver just looked tired.

"Alright, down into the base we go!" Sonic declared before jogging after the two mobians and eggbot. Shadow's air skates powered up behind him and Sonic smiled grimly against the wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've rewritten this chapter 3-4 times, and you know what? while I really like the fight at the end the rest of it will be super meh no matter what i do so pls take it.
> 
> also what's this two shadows--

**Author's Note:**

> my sonic tumblr url is also worksofyesterday.


End file.
